ASTRAKHAN, August 30. /TASS/. The date of trilateral gas transit talks of Russia, the EU and Ukraine will be agreed shortly, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

"We have a proposal to meet from Vice President of the European Commission Mr. Sefcovic. Either on September 16 or maybe at some other dates. We will discuss. I think [the date] will be agreed in the coming days," Novak said.

Russia has no objections to suggested dates, the Minister said. "We are ready to meet in the first half of September. We also have a certain schedule - [OPEC+] monitoring committee meeting in Abu Dhabi and other activities. Time should be selected in a way that everyone has an opportunity to meet at the same time," he added.

A diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS in early August that trilateral ministerial gas talks were scheduled for September 16. Later the European Commission offered to Russia and Ukraine the week from September 16 to 11 for the meeting.

The previous round of gas talks at the ministerial level was held in the middle of 2018.

The present ten-year contract on transit of the Russian gas through the Ukrainian territory expires at the end of 2019. By that time, Russia plans to launch two gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine - Nord Stream 2 and TurkStream.

The Ukrainian side has repeatedly said that it will not extend the transit contract on the previous terms and is considering options in case of transit suspension.