Senior German and Russian government officials agreed on a rare personal meeting next month in a bid to ease political tensions over Ukraine, a German government source told Reuters on Saturday.
German Chancellor Olaf Soltz’s foreign policy adviser Jens Plotner and Russia’s negotiator for Ukraine Dmitry Kozak agreed to meet after a lengthy telephone conversation on Thursday.
The German government has not made any official comment, while a Kozak associate declined to comment.
There has been a flurry of telephone conversations between Western leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent months over Russian military aid to the Ukrainian border and fears of an invasion.
Personal meetings between senior Western and Russian government officials were minimal, although US President Joe Biden held talks with President Putin in Geneva last June.
Since taking office this month, Soltz has stressed the need for dialogue with Russia on its military development on the Ukrainian border, and has called for sanctions in the event of a Moscow invasion.
Berlin has more doubts than Washington about whether Russia really wants to attack Ukraine and wants to escalate tensions, two government sources told Reuters.
Critics accuse Germany of being indebted to Putin for its need for Russian gas, but also for building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between the two countries, bypassing Ukraine. Berlin says the reasons for creating Nord Stream 2 are not political and that it will be just one of many pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe.
“The goal of the German side remains to achieve the rapid reactivation of the Normandy format,” the German government source said, referring to the multilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.
SPD parliamentary leader Rolf Myzenich told Reuters the party was not “naive” and knew who it was dealing with, adding that he still believed the commitment could help de-escalate the situation in Ukraine.
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Source From: Capital
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