Germany wants an OSCE mission in the Sea of Azov
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas proposed extending the mandate of the OSCE monitoring mission to the Sea of Azov, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He stated this on Thursday, December 6, on the sidelines of a meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Milan, DW reports.
According to Maas, expanding the mission will be a topic of discussion during a meeting between representatives of Ukraine and Russia, mediated by Germany and France, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, December 11, in Berlin.
As noted, before this, the head of the German Foreign Ministry met with the Foreign Ministers of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin and Russia Sergei Lavrov to discuss the proposal for negotiations.
“I think that from the Ukrainian side it was regarded as rational. On the contrary, the Russian side is very, very skeptical,” Maas concluded.
As the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported after Maas’s meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, the parties also agreed to continue the dialogue within the framework of Klimkin’s working visit to Germany next week.
“Ukraine counts on Germany’s continued leadership in shaping a strong and comprehensive EU response to the Kremlin’s bellicose rhetoric and aggressive actions that threaten the security of the Euro-Atlantic space,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Currently, the OSCE monitoring mission extends to the land territory of Ukraine and aims, in particular, to monitor the implementation of the Minsk agreements. After the detention of Ukrainian sailors in the Kerch Strait area, Ukraine called on the OSCE monitoring mission to begin enhanced monitoring of the Azov Sea and adjacent territories.
Germany Wants an OSCE Mission to the Sea of Azov