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Putin says Russia, Belarus to settle gas issues in ten days

Russia and Belarus have no disputed issues left, Putin said

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, April 3. /TASS/. Russia and Belarus will settle issues in the oil and gas sphere within ten days, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday after talks with his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

"We agreed we will settle all our disputes issues in the oil and gas sphere. We negotiated them and agree on the way and timeframe to do that," Putin said. "We will do that within ten coming days," he said.

Parties find a scheme "where we keep our approaches and bring closer our price positions," Putin said. "We find an opportunity for trade-off and agreed upon our work in this sphere not merely in 2017 but also in 2018 and 2019," he added.

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Russia and Belarus have no disputed issues left, Putin said.

"No disputed issues remain to date. We will progress, strengthen ally relations within the Union State framework and continue working on improvement of the regulatory base and development of the Eurasian Economic Union," the Russian president said.

According to Putin, Russia and Belarus are ready to develop rules for the common gas market by January 1 of the next year.

"The aspiration was confirmed to create required fundamental rules and conditions by July 2019 for establishment of the common electricity market (exactly the general terms and rules) and readiness was confirmed to endeavor to develop joint rules for the common gas market by January 1, 2018 and finalize intergovernmental agreements on the common gas market within the Eurasian Economic Union framework by 2024," the Russian president said.

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Vladimir Putin Belarus Oil & Gas Alexander Lukashenko

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