BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has urged a rapid resumption of peace negotiations in the Ukraine conflict, after talks with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.
Such talks were important for European security, Baerbock told reporters after the first face-to-face encounter between the two top diplomats.
To this end, she said, there should be a meeting in the so-called Normandy format, mediated by Germany and France with Ukraine and Russia.
“It is now important to revitalize the Normandy process,” she said. The group has not met together since 2019.
She spoke in similar terms during a visit to Kiev on Monday. She described diplomacy as “the only viable way” to defuse the crisis on the Russian-Ukrainian border, where tens of thousands of Russian troops have massed.
Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia did not see itself as a party to the conflict in Ukraine.
When it came to the security guarantees requested by Russia from NATO, Baerbock said in Moscow: “We are ready for serious discussions over mutual agreements and steps which can bring for security to everyone in Europe.”
Prior to the talks, Baerbock said that strong bilateral relations between Germany and Russia were a necessity, against a backdrop of ever-increasing tensions between the two countries.
There is no alternative to good relations between the two countries, agreed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as the two started their meeting.
“With this trip, I want to make clear that the relationship to Russia is very important, both to the new German government and to me personally,” Baerbock said.
Baerbock and the rest of the German government only took office last month, after weeks of talks following September elections.
Baerbock didn’t only focus on the here and now, but also looked back at the history of the ties between Germany and Russia, noting the “deep historic dimensions of our relations” including two world wars in which the two fought on different sides, a cold war that saw part of Germany turned into a separate country that joined a pro-Soviet bloc and, most recently, tensions as Germany and much of the West accuses Russia of human rights violations and international bullying.
She said that history drew her to make a point of laying a wreath at the grave of the unknown soldier, to show solidarity with the victims of World War II, in which thousands died during German attempts to invade Russia.
“The historic lows and the historic pain between our two countries always guides the politics of the present and for future generations. And we will be eternally grateful to the Russian people for our reconciliation after the horrors of the Nazi dictatorship.”
But ties are strained. Recently, Berlin expelled several Russian diplomats from Berlin after a German court ruled that the 2019 murder of a Georgian national was a politically motivated murder that was partially organized by the Russian embassy. Moscow responded by also expelling German diplomats.
Germany has also accused Russia of being behind hacker attacks on the German Bundestag in 2015 and for the 2020 chemical weapon attack on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Russia was recently angered by German decisions to stop allowing broadcast of the German-language programme of Russian state broadcaster RT.
