Foreign relations of Germany

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried a last-ditch effort to put an end to the war in Ukraine. Despite more than five hours of talks at the Kremlin between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of France and Germany, there was no deal to end the fighting in the eastern Ukraine. The three, however, agreed to continue diplomacy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande proposed a new peace plan during their visits to Ukraine and Russia on Thursday and Friday.

Hollande described the new proposal as "one of the last chances" to end the crisis in Ukraine, the BBC reports.

Merkel was not certain whether the plan would succeed, but it was "definitely worth trying".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Feb. 7 ruled out sending weapons to the Ukrainian government to fight pro-Russian separatists but said there was no guarantee that her latest peace initiative with French President Francois Hollande would work either. 

Vucic to attend Munich Security Conference

BELGRADE -- Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will visit Munich on February 6 and 7 and attend the Munich Security Conference.

A ministerial meeting on resolving the Ukrainian crisis in the so-called "Normandy format" will be held in Berlin on Friday, according to Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexei Makeyev.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday, during an introductory lecture for the new generation of students of the Foreign Ministry Diplomacy Academy, that Serbia would need diplomats more and more to protect its national interest.

Russia said Monday it has expelled a German diplomat and a number of Polish diplomats in response to the expulsion of its diplomats amid cooling ties with the EU over Ukraine.
      
Moscow said the German was expelled from Moscow in a retaliatory measure for what it described as an "unfriendly" step earlier by Berlin of expelling a Russian diplomat.
      

BERLIN - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will host a joint dinner for Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and OSCE Chairman-in-Office Didier Burkhalter at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on Wednesday, the German Federal Foreign Office has said in a release.

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, who is also foreign minister, will on Wednesday attend the 6th conference of foreign ministers of Western Balkan states, to be held in Berlin under the auspices of the German and British foreign ministers, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Philip Hammond.

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic met with German Ambassador to Serbia Heinz Wilhelm in Belgrade Thursday to discuss issues the work of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) before Serbia takes over the OSCE chairmanship on January 1, 2015.