Prime Ministers of Russia and Belarus Vladimir Putin and Sergei Sidorsky were unable to agree on bilateral issues relating to a single economic space formation at the negotiations on December 8. This was stated by the press secretary of the Russian Government Dmitri Peskov.
«There are still questions for further negotiation. Since the talks are going to be continued, it means that not all parameters could be negotiated on,» ITAR-TASS quoted the Press Secretary of Vladimir Putin.
However, moot points are not defined and the prime ministers themselves gave no interview to the press.
Putin Expected to Agree on SES Bilateral Issues within a Day
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expected to spend a day in order to agree with the Belarusian prime minister on the bilateral issues concerning the establishment of the Single Economic Space. «I hope to completely agree on these issues during our consultations today,» he said to Sergei Sidorsky.
According to Vladimir Putin, some of the issues under discussion are «very sensitive» to the economy of both countries.
«We meet with you, as agreed, in connection with the termination of the joint work on a large packet of documents to be the SES basis. As agreed, there are some issues, very sensitive to the economy of Russia and Belarus, to be settled on a bilateral basis to make the entire set of documents work,» the head of the Russian government said.
In turn, according to Sergei Sidorsky, «this package contains some bilateral issues to negotiate. «Besides, there are some issues that relate to the next-year supply of gas and hydrocarbons,» the Prime Minister of Belarus reminded.
Sergei Sidorsky believes that professionals, working on a package of documents, have made outstanding achievements, while the agreements themselves possess «a high degree of readiness.»
According to Telegraf, in early November the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko called the intention of «Gazprom» to raise the price of natural gas a «catastrophe.» He said that Belarus would purchase less than half of the Russian oil in 2011 than needed, while the remaining volume would receive from other vendors such as Venezuela.
Despite this, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on December 1 that the problems with the oil and gas supplies to Belarus wouldn’t be expected. According to him, preparation of documents for energy sector and the Common Economic Space «is being successfully completed», in which Belarus is «very interested.»
First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko noted on December 6 that Belarus would be able to «slow down» the Russian oil and gas price growth. In addition, according to Vladimir Semashko, Belarus expects to spend five years «to reach equal profits with Russia» in gas prices formation under Russia’s plan over the 2012-2014 period.
