Opinions & Interviews

MOSCOW, 19 February (BelTA) - Belarus is making its contribution to the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of Russia Valentina Matviyenko said after the meeting with Speaker of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Mikhail Myasnikovich, BelTA has learned.

"Belarus hosted the Normandy Four meeting and successfully fulfilled the functions of the host. The country contributes to the formulation of the proposals on the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, and takes this job seriously. It has created all the conditions for the negotiations in Minsk. I am sure that Belarus will continue to play a role,” said Valentina Matviyenko. Referring to the Minsk accords, Valentina Matviyenko noted that this is the result of a challenging and meaningful work of the heads of the four states in the first place. "The roadmap spells out a clear sequence of actions to be undertaken by both sides, and now the most important task for both sides of the conflict is to perform their obligations," said Valentina Matviyenko.

For his part, Mikhail Myasnikovich said that Belarus as a host country was involved in the long-running summit and high-level consultations on the conflict and would like to see the Minsk accords implemented. "We cannot directly influence these processes but we do provide assistance in a full measure. We would like to see the further positive development in accordance with the instruments adopted at Minsk,” said Mikhail Myasnikovich.