EU, NATO welcome French and German efforts on Ukraine

The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Thursday welcomed the visit by French President Francois Hollande with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with a new peace initiative amid escalating fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“NATO fully supports all efforts to reach a negotiated peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and therefore we fully support the initiative taken by two allies, Germany and France,” he told a press conference after a meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission on the level of defence ministers.
He said the NATO is committed to help Georgia make its defence more modern and has decided to set up a joint training centre in Tbilisi where, NATO troops, Georgian troops and forces from partner nations will train and exercise together.
“We condemn the steps taken by Russia in Georgia. In particular the recent signature of the so-called “agreement” with the Abkhazia region of Georgia,” he noted.
Meanwhile, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, who is also attending the meeting Of NATO Defence Ministers , said the EU supports all the initiatives aimed at bringing political solution to the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
“The efforts of Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Franأ§ois Hollande, and the visits to Kyiv and Moscow they just announced, are clearly going in this direction,” she said in a statement.