KYIV. Sept 14 (Interfax) - The Trilateral Contact Group on settlement of the situation in the eastern Ukraine may consider the issue of withdrawal of forces from the delimitation line at the next meeting on Tuesday, September 20, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"If both sides observe the ceasefire regime for a longer period than required week, then we will have a chance, which we have not had in a long time, as well as an opportunity to achieve further withdrawal of forces in certain regions. And we hope that an agreement on that will be reached at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group next Tuesday," he said at a briefing in Kyiv.
The measures to ensure security in the region were discussed at a trilateral meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday, he said.
Steinmeier also said that he intends to pay a visit to the Donetsk region together with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
"Jean-Marc and I will visit eastern Ukraine, Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. We will also have an opportunity to meet with the OSCE monitoring mission representatives, which will observe maintenance of ceasefire, there," he said.
In turn, Ayrault said that the participants in the trilateral meeting in Kyiv confirmed that there is no alternative to the Minsk process in the settlement of the Donbas situation.
"We stated our commitment to the Minsk process, which has no alternative. There is no Plan B. And one needs to speak on the necessity of the Minsk Agreements implementation," he said at a joint briefing with his Ukrainian and German counterparts in Kyiv.