SOCHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th June, 2023) The members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) are actively negotiating the creation of a single gas market, which is likely to be established by 2025, Energy Minister of the Eurasian Economic Commission Arzybek Kozhoshev told Sputnik.
"There are issues that should be resolved between our countries, we are currently in this process, there is an active phase of negotiations. There are several issues on which we cannot reach a common understanding, but I hope and believe that, by 2025, we should achieve a common energy market," he said on the sidelines of the Eurasian Forum in Sochi.
Kozhoshev also noted that EEU's members may start paying for gas in rubles in the future.
"We have not yet achieved that all five countries have switched to the ruble, but today this process is underway, and in the future, I think we will come to this," the official said.
In October, Kozhoshev told Sputnik that all members of the Eurasian Economic Union, except for Kazakhstan, had agreed to switch to gas payments in rubles, adding that Astana may also start trading in national currencies.
The EEU is an economic union, which consists of five former Soviet countries - Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia - and was designed to ensure the free movement of goods, services and labor among the member states.
