MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian Energy Ministry has approved a proposal by the European Commission (EC) to hold a bilateral meeting between European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak on August 29 in Moscow, a representative from the Energy Ministry said Tuesday.
“Preliminarily, the meeting is scheduled to take place on August 29,” the source said, adding that the agenda will be defined on August 25.
The EC suggested bilateral talks at the end of July. Back then, a spokesperson for the EC told RIA Novosti that the Commission was awaiting Moscow’s reply and that the talks should prepare the groundwork for a three-party meeting in the future.
The EC had initially hoped to have a trilateral meeting between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine before August. However, the upcoming talks between Oettinger and Novak do not presuppose having the trilateral meeting this month.
Trilateral talks took place from April until mid-June, but did not yield any major results. Kiev insisted on a dramatic reduction in prices for Russian gas, refusing to clear its existing debt, which, by that time, had reached $4.5 billion. Russia suggested a price reduction, but Ukraine did not agree to the conditions of the offer.
Later, Russia stated it was ready to resume the discussion only once Ukraine had paid off its debt. Gazprom switched to a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine on June 16. The most recent estimate puts Ukraine’s debt at $5.3 billion.
