During the government meeting at the Majilis, the lower chamber of Kazakhstan's Parliament, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrissov has expressed concerns over the implementation of the agreement on Ukraine signed in Minsk, Tengrinews reports. The agreement is directed at the resolution of the crisis in Ukraine.
During the government meeting at the Majilis, the lower chamber of Kazakhstan's Parliament, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerlan Idrissov has expressed concerns over the implementation of the agreement on Ukraine signed in Minsk, Tengrinews reports. The agreement is directed at the resolution of the crisis in Ukraine.
“The conflict in Ukraine became a real endurance test for the whole system of diplomacy. The situation has deteriorated significantly since the beginning of the year. We all are holding our breath as we are observing the process of restoration of peace. The news is unfortunately not very good. There are concerns that the complex agreement aimed at maintaining peace and terminating hostilities might fail for various reasons,” Idrissov said.
Idrissov added that the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were working on this difficult issue every day. “You witnessed the active role that the Head of the State played as a facilitator of the crisis resolution,” the Kazakh Minister explained.
“You know that in August the EEU and EU members met with the government of Ukraine in Minsk. This meeting in August was the basis for the agreements signed in Minsk on September 5 and 19th. You also know that the ceasefire agreement was not fulfilled. We observed a sudden increase in violence in December and January despite the Minsk agreement. That is why the Head of the State actively lobbied for peace in the end of December. As you know, Nazarbayev visited Minsk and Moscow. Before his official visits, Nazarbayev received the President of France Hollande and discussed the crisis in Ukraine for the whole day. After the meeting, Hollande decided to pay an unplanned visit to Moscow. The whole month of January we were waiting for the Normand Four meeting in Astana that did not take place due to logistic issues,” reminded Idrissov.
The recent telephone conversation with Angela Merkel, the talk with Petro Poroshenko and two phone calls with President of Russia Putin once again show Kazakhstan’s role in the resolution of this issue. “The Minsk process was virtually brought back to life in January by Nazarbayev. We hope that the process will be supported. However, I want to stress once again that the situation is very complex. According to our analysis, we observe that the parties involved in the conflict have fundamentally different interests. It is very difficult to bring these fundamental differences together. But as the Kazakh President said, we must not lose hope in the peace and should do whatever it takes to support and promote peacemaking,” the Minister said.
Idrissov added that an initiative of building relations between the EU and Eurasian Economic Union set in motion as a part of the work towards the resolution of the crisis in Ukraine. “It is a new and important geopolitical initiative and vision. We are glad that important political figures like German Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chancellor Merkel have been voicing more and more support to the initiative. The initiative is complex. It involves a whole set of serious political and economic issues. Yet, the idea has a right to be. It is a vision of our President. Kazakhstan will be thoroughly working on the idea. It is not a coincidence that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted the importance of the dialog between the EU and Eurasian Economic Union after the signing of the agreement of the Normand Four,” Idrissov concluded.
Reporting by Altynay Zhumzhumina, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina