The Budapest Memorandum is a political declaration, therefore, it is almost impossible to obtain real guarantees on this document at the present time, says German Ambassador to Ukraine Anka Feldhusen.
“The Budapest Memorandum is a political declaration and nothing more, it is not an international treaty. I remember when the Budapest Memorandum was discussed for the first time in 2014, they called me from Germany and asked what it was. I was in Ukraine when it was signed in 1994, but then no one remembered it. This is a political declaration, that is, it is simply impossible to obtain these guarantees today,” she said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The ambassador said that Germany is working with the United States, Great Britain, Canada and informs about efforts to settle the conflict in Donbas.
“What we really do is we talk with our partners. There is the Minsk format, the Normandy Four. We always talk with the United States and Great Britain, as well as Canada, which did not sign the Budapest Memorandum, but we work together, we will inform them. If they support our efforts – all the better,” she said.
At the same time, Feldhusen said that it is much more important than the expansion of the Normandy format for these countries to support both the efforts of Germany and Ukraine.
“If Ukraine wants to expand the existing formats, I don’t even know if the United States, Great Britain, Canada would be ready for this? Still, the Normandy format works well, and having a larger circle of participants means more coordination of positions. Now it is difficult to find a date for a possible meeting, and if there are seven or eight participants, it is even worse. It seems to us that it is much more important for these countries to support our efforts, Ukraine, and therefore we must constantly talk to them,” the diplomat said.
