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Ukraine insists on creating gas pipeline consortium with Russia, EU

The Ukrainian pipeline system would cost no less than five billion dollars to upgrade
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

KIEV, January 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Ukraine has at its disposal the necessary resources to carry out the upgrade of the gas pipeline system on its own, but it would prefer this to be done by an international consortium, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov told users of the Facebook social network.

“True, Ukraine has the resources to upgrade its gas pipeline system. But that means that we shall have to distract big money from other tasks, for instance, to take away the necessary funds from the health service and education. You will agree that this is not the best of all decisions. So our proposal is for creating an international consortium that would undertake to upgrade our system,” Azarov said.

At negotiations with Russia Ukraine insists on the creation of a trilateral consortium for upgrading and running the pipeline system. The consortium would also include Russia and the European Union. For its part, Russia insists on a two-party consortium, excluding the European Union. The EU supports a trilateral consortium and is waiting for Russia’s consent.

The Ukrainian pipeline system would cost no less than five billion dollars to upgrade.