Russia Suggested To Add US To Normandy Format, Other Members Refused - Lavrov

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2021) Russia has suggested adding the United States to the Normandy Format meeting but France and Germany have refused, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"Even when John Kerry was a (US) secretary of state and he came on a regular visit to Moscow, and we were at a reception with (President Vladimir) Putin, Putin said that 'here we see that the Americans are influencing Ukraine, you have your own special representative (Former Ukrainian President Petro) Poroshenko listens to you.

Maybe talk with Germany and France, so that you participate in the Normandy format?" Lavrov told reporters.

Kerry said that the US would think about this if receives an invitation.

Then we asked the Germans, the French, they said: 'Absolutely not. We must work in the format that was created, in which the Minsk agreements were signed, and that's the only way," Lavrov added.