Photo credit: kremlin.ru
Key issues on the international agenda, as well as bilateral relations in the economy, politics and culture, were discussed in the Kremlin by Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Their meeting took place on Saturday, January 11, according to the Kremlin website. Angela Merkel made a working visit to Russia.
The leaders of the two countries agreed to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project by the end of this year. The German chancellor called the project very important for Germany and other European countries and said that American sanctions against it were “wrong.” Putin assured that Russia was able to complete the construction of the pipeline on its own contrary to sanctions, the only question is the timing. Up until now, about 2,3 thousand kilometers of pipes out of the total of 2,5 thousand have been laid.
Both leaders called the agreements between Russia and Ukraine reached at the end of last year mutually beneficial and balanced. They once again emphasized the lack of alternativeness of the Minsk agreements as a basis for normalizing the situation in the Donbass. Putin expressed the hope that the special status of Donbass will continue to operate indefinitely and will be enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution.
The Russian president noted that hostilities in the Middle East should not develop into a large-scale military conflict, otherwise it will become a “humanitarian, inter-religious and economic catastrophe”. The interlocutors spoke in favor of maintaining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The subject of discussion was also the situation in Libya and the need to conduct its international discussion under the auspices of the UN, as well as the consequences of the collapse of the Ukrainian Boeing 737 jet, shot down by Iranian forces in Tehran.
Russkiy Mir
