After the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, there seems to be a chance for the resumption of gas transit through Ukraine. This time, “Azeri” gas would be delivered to Slovakia.
The Slovak Foreign Minister welcomed the statement of the European Commission which will continue to negotiate with Ukraine. “From the beginning, we have discussed with the Ukrainian government the possibility of transporting gas other than Russian gas via Ukraine, and we see the willingness of the Ukrainian side to negotiate such transport as a return to the solution we proposed, where we talked about transporting gas from Azerbaijan, for example.” wrote Minister Juraj Blanár on his Facebook.
The Ukrainian President sent also a positive message about this solution during the weekend. “Ukraine stands ready to transit natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe and a contract could be inked quickly if an agreement can be reached,” said Volodymyr Zelenskiy after a meeting with Maia Sandu, President of Moldova.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, was also pleased with the Commission’s statement, as “it was committed to protecting the natural gas and oil pipelines leading to the member states of the European Union.” The Hungarian government will also be part of the negotiation on Ukrainian transit.
However, the gas arriving through Ukraine is hardly to come from Azerbaijan, but the volumes would be “swapped” between the two countries before they were shipped. There is also the question of how quickly the agreement can be finalised.
