West Fails to Convince Lavrov to Meet Ukraine FM as Putin, Merkel Discuss 'Normalization'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday resisted Western pressure to meet his Ukrainian counterpart but said talks with the United States and others would continue in coming days, as Moscow and Berlin discussed the “normalization” of the situation in Ukraine.
At the end of a day of intense diplomatic negotiations in Paris, Lavrov left the French foreign ministry without having held a hoped-for meeting with acting Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Deshchytsya, a member of a government Moscow is refusing to recognize.
The United States, backed by Britain, France and Germany, had urged Lavrov to agree to a face-to-face meeting as a signal of Moscow's willingness to de-escalate the current stand-off with the West over Russia's actions on the Crimean peninsula.
In a short statement, Lavrov said his departure did not mean an end to efforts to resolve the current crisis through diplomatic channels.
"We had a long day of discussions on Ukraine," the veteran Russian diplomat said. "We are all concerned at what it is happening there.
"We agreed to continue those discussions in the days to come to see how best we can help stabilize, normalize the situation and overcome the crisis."
Deshchytsya, who at one point had headed for the airport before coming back, also struck an upbeat tone about the day's contacts. "I do believe that we will come to a positive outcome."
"The discussions will continue, and that's it."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius added: "It wasn't easy but we will continue to negotiate to try and find a peaceful way out of the crisis."
Lavrov had earlier held two bilateral meetings with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. After the second session, the Russian claimed it had been agreed that Ukraine should uphold a February 21 deal signed between now-ousted president Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition.
U.S. officials denied that this had been agreed, insisting that such a deal could be reached only with the involvement of the pro-Western Ukraine government that has replaced Yanukovich's pro-Kremlin administration.
Kerry said later on Wednesday that "intense discussions" with Russia and Ukraine would continue in the coming days in the hope of securing a de-escalation of current tensions between them.
"We initiated a process today that we hope will eventually lead to de-escalation," Kerry told reporters.
Kerry said he would continue talks with Lavrov in Rome on Thursday, where both will be for a meeting on Libya.
Kerry added: "I will be in touch with the foreign minister and prime minister of Ukraine later tonight."
"We had very thorough discussions today … This is hard, tough stuff. This is very serious."
Kerry played down Lavrov's refusal to meet his Ukrainian counterpart in Paris, saying he had never expected that to happen.
He also insisted that sanctions against Russia were still an option but stressed: "We would prefer to find an appropriate diplomatic solution to this."
"We made it clear that the decision to go to Crimea is not without cost. Now we need to go forward and see if we avoid everybody being put in a corner where it's more and more difficult to find the path that presents you with the solution of dialogue,” added Kerry.
"I was encouraged today that Russia indicated that they would prefer to see us be able to find that path. That's the beginning of a negotiation,” he said.
The Kerry-Lavrov meetings were the first since the collapse of the Yanukovich government plunged Ukraine into crisis and led to a de facto takeover of the Crimean peninsula by pro-Moscow forces.
The West regards Russia's conduct as an infringement of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty. Moscow insists it has acted legally in line with agreements that allow it to have a military presence in the strategically important peninsula. It also denies it has sent any troops to Crimea.
EU leaders are due to discuss the crisis at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday.
It seems unlikely that they would be able to agree on imposing sanctions on Moscow, with diplomats in Paris indicating that Russia would be given more time to demonstrate a willingness to negotiate.
French officials said the focus now was on getting Russia to agree to join an international Contact Group on Ukraine involving the main western powers and the new government in Kiev.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday discussed international co-operation over the "acute crisis" in Ukraine in a phone call, the Kremlin said.
Merkel called Putin and the two leaders "discussed possible scenarios for international co-operation in the normalization of the social and political situation," it said in a statement.
Source: Agence France Presse
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