(Source: Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English)
KYIV. Oct 1 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The Ukrainian government has approved directives on government negotiations on natural gas deliveries with Russia, which are to take place in Moscow on October 2, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told a news conference on Wednesday.
The directives take into account all proposals put forth by the National Security and Defense Council and the president's orders calling for immediate talks on gas shipments to Ukraine, she said.
The directives also include several principles the Ukrainian authorities will advocate during the negotiations, the prime minister said.
"We would not only like to have a situational agreement between businesses. We would like to have certain market principles that should be signed at the inter-governmental level," Tymoshenko said.
These principles are intended to secure "Russian guarantees regarding a balance of natural gas in Ukraine and Ukrainian guarantees that the high-quality transit of Russian gas across the territory of the country and the amounts that would allow the Russian Federation to fulfill all of its export contracts will be ensured," she said.
During the talks, the Ukrainian authorities will suggest switching to direct state contacts between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) starting from January 1, 2009, Tymoshenko said.
(c) 2008 Daily News Bulletin; Moscow - English. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
