MINSK, 18 December (BelTA) – Minsk is playing host to a meeting of the working groups of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on 18 December, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Trilateral Contact Group will convene later. The previous meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group took place in Minsk on 27 November. The parties announced after the meeting that all the tasks set by political advisers of the Normandy format were fulfilled by the TCG and its working groups. When asked about the results of the discussion about the detainee swap, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Martin Sajdik said that the parties are working hard on it. “I hope it will happen in the near future,” he informed.
On 9 December Paris hosted the Normandy Four summit of the leaders of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France. The participants of the meeting agreed on a big prisoner swap by 31 December 2019. The final communique also stated that the Minsk agreements continue to be the basis of the work of the Normandy format. The document also read that the parties will support an agreement within the Trilateral Contact Group on three additional disengagement areas, with the aim of disengaging forces and equipment by the end of March 2020. The leaders agreed to meet again in four months' time. The meeting is expected to take place in Berlin.