German President Joachim Gauck stated that, according to the positions already expressed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany "still firmly" desire that the Minsk Agreements be respected.
"Germany's position, as I understood from the Chancellor and the Foreign Minister, is that we still firmly desire that the Minsk Agreements be respected. This is why there is no reason for major concern. If we read the texts of the German Minister of Foreign Affairs you will understand that it is not about distancing ourselves from those stipulated in previously concluded agreements. The German party is, in its turn, the one that, together with its partners, fought for the existence and conclusion of these Minsk Agreements. When at first we didn't succeed, we picked up the effort and behold, we have managed to conclude this Agreement. It is about a conflict that seems hardly solved," said the German President on Monday in a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart, when asked about the maintaining of economic sanctions imposed on Russia.
Gauck added that "we need to make small, but visible steps". "We must think what these steps are. They are not, however, steps that deny in any measure those stipulated in Minsk. We have somehow fallen in this ingrate situation of explaining the positions of the German Government, yet I have done nothing but present what I, in turn, read in the press. So, I can only explain this matter as I see it, without divulging a state secret. Think of what I was saying earlier. Germany isn't running away. Germany is on a path that would lead to participation in drawing up a solution. This is what is important to be known. We mustn't wish necessarily to keep some things that were stipulated in one way or another," said the German President.
The European Union should gradually eliminate sanctions imposed on Russia following the Ukrainian crisis if substantial progress is made in the peace process, said on Sunday the German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Reuters reports. He added that "an all-or-nothing approach, even though it sounds good, doesn't work".
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