Merkel is trying with all her might to assemble the Normandy format - expert

Before leaving the post of Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel needs diplomatic victories, one of which could even be the simple organization of a meeting of the Normandy Four countries, despite the fact that this issue has already been overshadowed by the events in Belarus and problems with the completion of the Nordic project. stream-2".

German political scientist Alexander Rahr said this via video link on the Nash TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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“The head of the German Foreign Ministry constantly says that the Normandy format needs to be revived, that the meeting must take place. Now Merkel’s chancellorship is ending, she wants to end it with a result in one of the most important foreign policy issues - war and peace in the East of Ukraine.

Therefore, Germany will not only support, but even in some way initiate the settlement process if new ideas appear from Ukraine and Russia, and from the separatists. Maybe Germany itself will propose, I don’t know yet, but the fact that they want to hold this meeting at all costs, despite the coronavirus, and so that Merkel’s chancellorship ends positively, is a fact,” Rahr said.

In its turn. the TV presenter suggested that for the effective end of the chancellorship, the issue of completing the Nord Stream 2 project is much more important to Angela Merkel and her voters than the problems of Ukraine.

Nord Stream 2 is currently being discussed. I would say this is a pan-European problem, but Ukraine is also on the agenda. True, I must admit that it is not as high on the agenda as it was a few years ago, this is true. But now all this can be eclipsed by Belarus.

I just see that there are a lot of problems. We are talking about Ukraine, and at these very hours a very serious conflict could break out between Greece and Turkey. And German diplomacy is also involved in all this, putting out the fire. But if we talk about German assistance, then the agenda is positive - for such a meeting and for the result,” the political scientist answered.

At the same time, commenting on the letter from the curator of the Ukrainian issue in the Kremlin, Dmitry Kozak, where the Russian diplomat called the negotiations between advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four pointless, the expert noted that the issue is being transferred to the Foreign Ministry.

“In my opinion, Kozak really made a demarche, but said that let the Minister of Foreign Affairs deal with this issue, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs has this issue on the agenda. Therefore, I think that Kozak’s letter has not been forgotten here, but the negotiations may continue to move in a different direction.

The main thing is the statements of the state leaders themselves. If the Ukrainian president considers it necessary to resume this process, because he is also interested in seeing some result, he must show his people that he wants to move in this direction. Therefore, there are many interests of the four powers that will meet in the Normandy Four,” Rahr said.

“It seems to me that Russia is also interested in some kind of solution. Russia now has so many problems and conflicts with the West - take the situation in Belarus, for example - that, of course, we want to either neutralize or freeze the conflict in other conflict fields, or do everything to prevent it from burning further. Therefore, Russian diplomacy here can also be understood,” the expert added.

In addition, he emphasized that we should not forget about the upcoming presidential elections in the United States, on the result of which a lot depends.

“This will be, on the one hand, the dirtiest election in American history, but on the other hand, the most interesting. And these two contenders for the “throne” are so different and the politics will be so different - there may be a completely different world order that may emerge, and this will also affect Ukraine,” summed up Alexander Rahr.