The Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations with Russia in Istanbul, Turkey, acknowledged that the Crimea and Donbas issues are already settled, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said from Beijing.
As part of his trip to China, where he will participate in a conference on Afghanistan, the foreign minister said that the results of the new round of negotiations between Moscow and kyiv, which were held on Tuesday in Istanbul, Turkey, are “a positive step forward “.
Lavrov acknowledged that it is not the final result of the negotiations, but pointed out two important facts that emerged from this dialogue; the first, the confirmation by kyiv to guarantee the non-nuclear status for Ukraine.
The second, that the Government of Ukraine recognizes that its security is outside the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Stating that the negotiations were positive, Lavrov said: “We regard the results of the negotiations held yesterday in Istanbul as a positive development for the future.”
The Russian foreign minister pointed out from the city of Tunshi, Anhui province in China: “the unipolar world becomes a thing of the past”, while “a multipolar world begins to form”, in which no one “should be seen as an actor in the background”, being “all equal and sovereign”.
The issue of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, one of the most sensitive issues in the talks, and the status of the Crimean peninsula are untouchable for Russia.
