REUTERS

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will meet with his counterpart from Russia on September 13, U.S. sources told news agencies.

Perry will meet in Moscow with Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak, the sources said, RFE/RL wrote.

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Perry would be the most-senior U.S. official to visit Russia since the Helsinki summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July.

The Kommersant newspaper reported that the two ministers plan to discuss Russia's Nord Stream-2 pipeline project to carry Russian gas under the Baltic to Germany.

The United States, Poland, the Baltic states, and several other EU countries have expressed concern about Nord Stream 2 – which avoids existing gas pipelines through Ukraine – and the added leverage on energy security it could give Moscow.

Putin has defended the pipeline project, saying Russia is the most suitable supplier of energy for Europe.

Before traveling to Moscow, Perry is scheduled to meet Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, and other Saudi officials in Washington on September 10.