BRUSSELS, May 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Another round of trilateral talks involving Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers as well as the European commissioner for energy to resolve the natural gas issue in Ukraine will be held on May 30 in Berlin, a spokesperson for the commissioner said on Thursday.

European Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger’s spokeswoman Sabine Berger said the sides in the talks would discuss a proposal made by the commission at the previous round of talks on Monday.

Following the May 26 talks, Oettinger said Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz was ready to transfer $2 billion as a down payment for its debt to Russian state energy giant Gazprom. According to him, if the money was transferred by the stated dateline it would have been possible to continue the talks to agree the mutually acceptable gas price for the period starting from early April.

Oettinger also said that in case agreements were reached between Russia and Ukraine, Naftogaz would pay a second down payment in the amount of $500 million on June 7.

Ukraine’s parliament-appointed Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Prodan will take part in a tripartite meeting on gas issues on May 30, the ministry’s press service says.

On May 26, Prodan said Ukraine “is ready to pay for gas, but the price must be market and fair.”

“Ukraine is ready to fully pay off its debts and is ready to pay the price close to the market one,” he said. “I think we will look into the proposals voiced here,” the minister added.

However, he could not clearly answer journalists’ queries whether Naftogaz of Ukraine will pay $2 billion within the timeframe mentioned by Oettinger.