a foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas is going to Moscow to discuss key issues of Russian-German agenda with Sergey Lavrov. Diplomats will discuss Ukraine, the Libyan conflict, Syria, and also the state of relations between Russia and the European Union. According to experts, one of the main issues will be finding steps to establish a dialogue between Moscow and Brussels against the background of problems in relations between the EU and the USA. In addition, the special interest of the German side is the settlement of the conflict in the Donbass.
Foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas is going to visit Russia on a working visit for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. During the meeting the Ministers will discuss key issues of bilateral agenda, will compare the upcoming schedules until the end of the year contracts in the political, economic and cultural spheres.
As stated by the Deputy Director of the Department of information and press of the MFA of Russia Alexei Zaitsev, visit the Maas consists of 11 August, the eve of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Moscow Treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany — in fact the agreement is a peace Treaty of the parties.
a under one of its provisions, the German side refused claims on the territory of the former East Prussia — first of all it concerns the present Kaliningrad region.
“In the first half of the day will hold talks Minister for foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov with Heiko Maas. Will also exchange opinions on topical international problems, including the situation in Ukraine, Syria and Libya; the situation around the joint plan of action against the Iranian nuclear program,” — said Zaitsev.
In addition, the parties expect to discuss the state of relations between Russia and the EU, with the presidency of Germany in EU Council, and to address issues of global stability and strategic security.
In the afternoon, Maas needs to go in St. Petersburg, part of the program of the working visit of the head of the German foreign Ministry will be dedicated to the memory of the victims of the German siege of Leningrad during the Second world war. In the announcement of the German foreign Ministry separately noted that in the past year, Maas and Lavrov agreed that the German government is now alive today, the blockade — its provisions are already being implemented.
the Donbass-European question
From the point of view of the German scientist, the scientific Director of the German-Russian forum Alexander Rahr, the situation in Ukraine will be one of the main topics of the meeting of the foreign Ministers Russia and Germany.
“the German government, which has been working a year, wants to make progress in the Minsk agreement — at least to move the business off the ground and to launch any peacekeeping operation.
Germany is signed under the full feebleness in matters of European security, if nothing will be achieved,” — said the expert.
On the subject of Donbass recently planned a major breakthrough: a full-scale agreement of the parties to the conflict in Ukraine and the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk national republics (DND and LNR) on the ceasefire gives a chance to transition to a peaceful settlement of the conflict. While the silent mode is preserved, while the sides accuse each other of violating the agreement.
For Moscow the question of peace in the South-East of Ukraine is linked with the lifting of economic sanctions of the European Union, but the resolution of the conflict depends on Kiev and the republics of Donbass, not Russia. Germany, as the Russian side sees the possibility of settlement of the conflict only through the Minsk agreements, however, the Ukrainian side is in no hurry to go to the implementation of the political agreement — which, in fact, creates an impasse in this matter.
What exactly on this topic can discuss Lavrov and Maas — the issue is quite complicated. Probably, it will go about advancing the peace process in Ukraine and is likely to be raised about the organization of the summit “channel four” — that actively insists Kiev, but Moscow sees no reason to hold a meeting without progress on the Minsk agreement.
but the Second important issue in the dialogue of the Meuse, and Lavrov is likely to become bilateral relations and close cooperation between Russia and Europe, said Alexander Rahr.
“Germany is one of those European countries, which sees changes in the relations of Europe and the United States. The Germans realize that the parties are more divided, so it is not on the Europeans to have a permanent and growing conflict with Russia. Probably, one of the tasks Heiko Maas will focus on this, it hardly has any new suggestions, but he will try to find the steps for normalization of relations with Moscow”, — said the expert.
If we consider the situation around Moscow’s relations with the EU, they can hardly be called good — the main negative aspect here are the sanctions and the reluctance of Western countries to recognize Crimea as Russian territory, despite the fact that the Peninsula became part of the state through a referendum conducted in accordance with all international standards.
Additional tension creates negative attitudes of some European countries to Russia. For example, in the Baltic States or Poland, the Russian��th side has repeatedly called a major threat to Europe, strongly supporting sanctions pressure on Moscow. In addition, these States actively advocated the strengthening of NATO troops, especially U.S. troops, which is a violation of the founding act NATO — Russia extremely negatively perceived in Moscow.
a Concerning the relations of Russia directly with Germany, if we ignore the German government following the General trend of anti-Russian restrictive measures, they can be called quite positive.
By consistently moving toward implementation of a major project of the gas pipeline “Nord stream — 2” — Berlin is committed to bringing the building up to the end and his defense, despite the threat of sanctions pressure from the United States.
the workers and election
Against Syria and Libya Maas also have something to discuss with Lavrov. According to Alexander Rahr, Germany is concerned about the possibility of a new flow of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.
“the German Government considers the issue of migrants one of the main challenges for themselves, so the problem of uncontrolled migration is likely to be one of the topics discussed. The main issue is that the head of the German foreign Ministry can offer new and interesting that could somehow attract Lavrov that Russia and Germany started to look for a common strategy,” the expert added.
a Europe’s Policy on Libya has failed completely, that I understand, in Germany, said Rahr, in this case Germany signed his impotence in this crisis decide Russia, Turkey and the Arab countries, not Europeans.
If we consider the situation in Syria and Libya, Europe is trying to connect to resolve both issues — on the Syrian line, this manifests itself in initiatives for the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the Libyan — through the organization of large conferences in the beginning of the year to reduce tensions in the region. Much success until the Europeans could not be reached, although Libya is in fact completely resolve the situation until he could no.
The expert also noted that it is impossible to forget about the presidential election in Belarus, which can also talk, Lavrov and the Meuse, especially if the “something unusual”.
Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko is facing a fairly strong opponent from the United opposition Svetlana Tikhanovski, which is actively supported by the people, which is manifested at the rallies.
However, the success of the opponent of the leader of Belarus does not guarantee her victory in the elections, which according to local media, will be major disruptions and is likely to end in a victory for Lukashenko. It could trigger riots because of the disagreement of the people with the voteharmonization, partly to attract the attention of Lavrov and Maas.
