Photo from UNIAN
The ministry says its team is preparing for all possible scenarios of further developments, not only the tripartite talks at a political level.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on European integration, Olena Zerkal, says representatives of Russia's energy giant Gazprom disrupted technical tripartite consultations involving Ukraine, Russia, and the European Commission regarding future gas transit through the Ukrainian territory.
"Gazprom disrupted technical tripartite gas consultations, trying to intimidate Europe with its uncontrollability and impose its concepts instead of civilized rules. Their logic is simple – not to pay attention to anyone, keep constructing Nord Stream 2, without waiting for final permits, and ignore partners," Zerkal wrote on Facebook.
"After that, they will continue convincing the world that it's possible to reach agreements with Gazprom, building relations on trust, as German politicians do. And it doesn’t even matter already whether it's senseless naivety or cynicism. In fact, this is self-deception and deception of the whole world,” the deputy foreign minister stressed.
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In this regard, she noted that “the only thing left to do is not to make any exceptions for Gazprom and to extend all EU norms to all its projects, especially the Nord Stream 2, which Ukraine has been long demanding.”
“It’s very opportune that the issues of relevant changes to the EU gas directive are being discussed in the EU Council today,” added Zerkal.
“Meanwhile, we've held meaningful discussions with the European Commission on all significant gas market reform issues, the implementation of the Association Agreement, including the updated Annex XXVII, the further fate of tripartite consultations, etc.," said Zerkal. "We are working further and preparing not only for tripartite consultations at the political level, but also for all possible scenarios of developments."
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As UNIAN reported earlier, on January 9, European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said that the next round of tripartite talks with Russia and Ukraine on the long-term transit of Russian gas to the EU via Ukraine would be held in Brussels on January 21, 2019.
On January 10, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin spoke of Ukraine's position that the delegation would defend in tripartite gas talks regarding the future transit of gas via Ukraine. The Foreign Minister stressed that the future transit of Russian gas to Europe should be carried out based on European norms and rules.