EU, Russia, Ukraine to resume gas talks on August 26
The European Commission will restart gas negotiations with Russia and Ukraine at a Customs Union-Ukraine summit on August 26 in Minsk, an EC official said Wednesday, according to ITAR-TASS.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin may meet his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko at the summit to discuss solutions to put an end to the conflict in the east of Ukraine.
The EU will be represented by foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht and Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, the EC said in a statement.
An EC source told ITAR-TASS earlier that the trilateral negotiations were unlikely to restart until September 5. A bilateral meeting between Oettinger and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is scheduled for August 29.
During the trilateral consultations, Russia and Ukraine will have to agree on temporary prices for gas supplies and wait for arbitration courts’ final decisions, Oettinger said earlier in August.
The trilateral negotiations hit a deadlock in June, when Gazprom then agreed to recalculate the April-May Ukraine’s debt on the basis of a US $384.86 price, but Kiev wanted the price to be set at $326.00. According to Gazprom, the debt amounts to $5.3 billion, while Oettinger estimated it at $3.9 billion.