BRUSSELS - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini says there is a small reason for hope for reconvening the trilateral contact group on Ukraine.
“There have been talks now for some days about the reconvening of the trilateral contact group. Some limited, but still some signs of limited hope might be there for us to work on. We’ve come through this too many times to fall into illusions about the turning points. I wouldn’t define any turning points at the moment, but still, as I said, [there is] a small reason for hope on which we need to build,” she said in Brussels prior to her visit to Kyiv on Dec. 16-17.
“The positive thing is that all actors are referring still to the Minsk agreement implementation as key, so I would say that this is going to be key also for us to make sure that this happens. Because if all actors refer to something and to the implementation of something as key, then in principle we shouldn’t have problems in doing that,” she said.
“This is going to be also another element of my conversations in Kyiv, as they were when I met [Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov in Basel a few days ago,” she added.
“I said in November that I was ready to visit Kyiv as soon as a new [Ukrainian] government was in place. We waited actually a little bit because we had to have all relevant actors in town,” she said.
“The agenda for supporting reforms inside Ukraine <> is going to be a lot of my agenda in my visit in Kyiv: How we implement the reform agenda in Kyiv and how we can support that in different sectors,” she said.
She also informed she would report about her visit to Kyiv to the EU heads of state and government at a European summit, scheduled for Dec. 18.
