You're reading: Lavrov: Geneva meeting so far remains on agenda (updated)

Hanoi - A quadripartite meeting of Russia, the United States, the European Union and Ukraine dedicated to the Ukrainian crisis settlement so far remains on the agenda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. 

“This meeting remains on the agenda for now,” he told a press conference after negotiations with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.

The launch of a Ukrainian constitutional reform is supposed to be the primary subject of this meeting, the Russian foreign minister said.

“The agreement has to be reached by the Ukrainians themselves because the predicament is derived from the profound crisis of Ukrainian statehood and it cannot be resolved without a dialogue with the equal participation of all political forces and all regions. Sincere friends of the Ukrainian people must force the incumbent authorities to finally move from words to deeds and begin a genuine and comprehensive constitutional process, a constitutional reform, which will provide the rights of all regions within the Ukrainian state,” the minister continued.

“Actually, this will be the main subject of the Geneva meeting and the main task of the international community expressing its concerns about the Ukrainian situation. It [Ukraine] must be forced to start a genuine rather than cosmetic constitutional reform,” the Russian minister added.