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Trilateral gas meeting starts in Berlin

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin participate in talks

BERLIN, July 17. /TASS/. Representatives of Russia, the European Union and Ukraine started the trilateral meeting in Berlin on the Russian gas transit via the territory of Ukraine, TASS reports from the scene.

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Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin participate in talks. Chief Executive Officer of Gazprom Alexei Miller and head of Naftogaz of Ukraine Andrei Kobolev also arrived at the meeting.

The trilateral meeting was preceded by the bilateral meeting of Novak and Sefcovic and by the meeting with participating Minister of Economy of Germany.

The need to hold negotiations arose primarily because two contracts signed in 2009 by and between Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine on gas supplies to Ukraine and gas transit to Europe will expire at the turn of 2019. The issue of maintaining Russian gas transit after 2019 is also discussed in the context of planned construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

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