MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th December, 2019) The next meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and the European Commission will take place in Berlin on Thursday, December 19.
The sides are going to discuss length of a new contract, transit volumes, and also conditions for settling the arbitration disputes, according to the commission's statement.
The current Russian-Ukrainian gas transit contract is set to expire on December 31. In November, Gazprom sent Ukraine's Naftogaz an official proposal to extend the contract or enter into a new one for one year. According to the Russian gas giant, the prerequisite for continued transit is that both sides must give up their lawsuits and claims to antitrust authorities against one another.
Naftogaz said that Kiev would not withdraw its lawsuits lodged against Gazprom with international arbitration courts unless it could reach a gas transit and delivery deal with Russia.
In February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ordered Russian state-owned Gazprom gas company to pay $2.56 billion to its Ukrainian counterpart, Naftogaz. Naftogaz now demands Gazprom to pay $2.56 billion with interest, making it $3 billion.
