OSCE Chairperson-in-Office visits Ukraine for political talks and to meet monitors of the Special Monitoring Mission together with OSCE Secretary General

BERLIN / KYIV, 14 September 2016 - German Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Frank-Walter Steinmeier has embarked on a two-day visit to Ukraine, starting with political talks in Kyiv today. Steinmeier’s meetings with President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will take place together with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, thus reflecting the close and continuous political partnership of Germany and France in the framework of the so-called Normandy format.

“Jean-Marc Ayrault and I will not flag in our efforts to remind the parties to the conflict, both in Kyiv and Moscow, of their responsibility for reaching a political settlement in eastern Ukraine and implementing the Minsk agreements,” Steinmeier said before leaving for Ukraine. “No matter how fragile the situation is once again, the renewed ceasefire commitment at the beginning of the new school year was a proof that the sides can change things for the better.”

Referring to recent talks with Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Steinmeier underlined his conviction that it is possible to agree now and without preconditions on a lasting ceasefire: “What is needed is the willingness to compromise, on all sides, and the will to actually implement what has already been agreed.” Opening the series of talks in the Ukrainian capital, Steinmeier will have an exchange with Ambassador Martin Sajdik, his Special Representative in Ukraine and to the Trilateral Contact Group on the implementation of the peace plan in the East of Ukraine.

The following day, 15 September, the Chairperson-in-Office will be joined by the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier during a visit to eastern Ukraine. There, they will meet, amongst others, Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) and staff of the SMM patrol hub in Kramatorsk.

“Without the OSCE, the conflict in eastern Ukraine would have escalated a long time ago”, Steinmeier declared with a view to this meeting.  “This is why, in my capacity as OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, I would like to express my great respect and my appreciation for the courageous women and men in the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine who work day after day at the line of contact in eastern Ukraine to prevent things from getting worse.”

One focus of the visit to eastern Ukraine will be the humanitarian situation. In Sloviansk, Steinmeier will meet with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).