Gas supplies to Europe are at the top of the agenda for talks beginning in Munich today between Russia and Germany. Germany is seeking assurances that it will not fall victim to disputes between Moscow and Ukraine, as happened last winter.
The talks scheduled to commence Thursday between Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev and his German counterpart Angela Merkel will likely be dominated by concerns surrounding Europe's gas supplies.
Russian supplies to much of Europe were cut off during a dispute between Moscow and Ukraine last winter, which had a marked effect on cost and availability in Germany, Europe’s biggest customer of Russian gas.
Timofei Bordachev, director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies in Moscow, said ensuring the stability of Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas would be one of the top features of the talks.
"Russia and Germany understand each other here and both want to reinforce Ukraine as a reliable transit country for gas deliveries to Europe," he told AFP.
Pipeline war
However, just three days before the talks, the European Union signed an agreement with Turkey on a pipeline it hopes will reduce its dependence on Russian gas.
This Nabucco pipeline, which will open in 2014 and run through Turkey, is a rival to the Nord Stream project - led by state-controlled Russian gas giant Gazprom - which would pump natural gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany.
After years of unstable relations between Moscow and its former satellite states - Ukraine in particular - Nord Stream is designed to circumvent regional politics by cutting out transit countries.
Medvedev's aide Prikhodko said the talks would encompass a discussion on Nord Stream, adding that on this topic, "cooperation and mutual understanding with the Germans is quite high."
Possible takeover of Opel
Russia and Germany are also poised to sign a raft of economic partnership deals, including a 500 million Dollar (357 million Euro) credit agreement.
Among the documents to be signed or adopted will be a joint declaration on energy cooperation and an agreement between Russian Railways and Siemens to establish a joint venture to manufacture trains.
The possible takeover of troubled German carmaker Opel by Russian-backed Canadian auto parts maker Magna International is also on the agenda.
Berlin agreed in late May to support a bid for a majority stake in Opel by Magna, which has teamed up with state-owned Russian bank Sberbank and Russia's second-largest auto maker GAZ.
However, Opel's parent company General Motors has also received interest from Brussels-based investment group RHJ International and from China's Beijing Automotive Industry Company (BAIC), throwing the deal into some doubt.
Prikhodko said Medvedev would push the deal in Munich. "We'll speak out in support (of the deal) and we'll call on (Germany) to support it too ... It's a useful deal," he said.
Russian supplies to much of Europe were cut off during a dispute between Moscow and Ukraine last winter, which had a marked effect on cost and availability in Germany, Europe’s biggest customer of Russian gas.
Timofei Bordachev, director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies in Moscow, said ensuring the stability of Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas would be one of the top features of the talks.
"Russia and Germany understand each other here and both want to reinforce Ukraine as a reliable transit country for gas deliveries to Europe," he told AFP.
Pipeline war
However, just three days before the talks, the European Union signed an agreement with Turkey on a pipeline it hopes will reduce its dependence on Russian gas.
This Nabucco pipeline, which will open in 2014 and run through Turkey, is a rival to the Nord Stream project - led by state-controlled Russian gas giant Gazprom - which would pump natural gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany.
After years of unstable relations between Moscow and its former satellite states - Ukraine in particular - Nord Stream is designed to circumvent regional politics by cutting out transit countries.
Medvedev's aide Prikhodko said the talks would encompass a discussion on Nord Stream, adding that on this topic, "cooperation and mutual understanding with the Germans is quite high."
Possible takeover of Opel
Russia and Germany are also poised to sign a raft of economic partnership deals, including a 500 million Dollar (357 million Euro) credit agreement.
Among the documents to be signed or adopted will be a joint declaration on energy cooperation and an agreement between Russian Railways and Siemens to establish a joint venture to manufacture trains.
The possible takeover of troubled German carmaker Opel by Russian-backed Canadian auto parts maker Magna International is also on the agenda.
Berlin agreed in late May to support a bid for a majority stake in Opel by Magna, which has teamed up with state-owned Russian bank Sberbank and Russia's second-largest auto maker GAZ.
However, Opel's parent company General Motors has also received interest from Brussels-based investment group RHJ International and from China's Beijing Automotive Industry Company (BAIC), throwing the deal into some doubt.
Prikhodko said Medvedev would push the deal in Munich. "We'll speak out in support (of the deal) and we'll call on (Germany) to support it too ... It's a useful deal," he said.
Source: France24
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