During his stopover in Kyiv, Rinkēvičs was due to meet with President Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to establish the current Ukrainian position with regard to the armed violence in the east of the country which is believed to be fomented with help from Moscow.
In a tweet from Kyiv, Rinkēvičs said President Poroshenko had confirmed his attendance at May's Riga Summit, the showcase climax of Latvia's EU Presidency.
. @edgarsrinkevics Kyiv meeting step 2 successful Riga Summit. UA FM @PavloKlimkin confirms @poroshenko attendance. pic.twitter.com/Od5IT10R8F
— Latvian MFA (@Latvian_MFA) January 10, 2015
Then on 11-12 January Rinkēvičs will be on a working visit to Moscow for meetings with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, and the Chairman of the Latvia-Russia Intergovernmental Commission, Russia’s Minister of Transport, Maksim Sokolov.
The visit takes place in the context of Latvia’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and in coordination with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini.
On January 8, Rinkēvičs had described his challenging trip as a "reconnaisance mission" to examine the possibilities of reaching a peaceful solution to the strife in eastern Ukraine and of informing the European Union about the effectiveness of sanctions, the first of which come up for review in March.
The Ministers also intend to exchange opinions on current Latvia-Russian bilateral relations.
