KIEV (Sputnik) – Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has met with his Romanian counterpart Teodor Melescanu on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, discussing bilateral issues, including a meeting of a joint presidential commission, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The foreign ministers discussed the key issues on the agenda of relations between Ukraine and Romania, in particular, the holding in 2017 of a meeting of the Ukrainian-Romanian joint presidential commission," the Saturday statement says.
According to the release, Melescanu said his country was committed to supporting Ukraine in various international formats with the aim of helping Ukraine restore its territorial integrity.
Klimkin thanked Melescanu for Romania’s support.
The breakout of hostilities in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.
In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Since then, the ceasefire regime has been regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
