Ukrainian ambassador: Cutting natural gas exports to Ukraine not suitable for Russia

Ukrainian Ambassador to Romania Teofil Bauer said in an interview with AGERPRES that cutting the natural gas exports to Ukraine is not suitable for Russia and the declarations to this effect coming from Moscow are political."Russia is actively using the energy aspects in politics. It is very much politicized. Those declarations coming now from the Russian Federation are political declarations. Ukraine meets all the conditions mentioned in the contract on the gas import from Russia. If we compare the natural gas consumption over this year with the one last year, we'll see that the consumption volume has diminished by 20 percent. I am convinced we will go through this winter, given last year's practice, when our European partners helped us a lot in being supplied natural gas — we received it via Slovakia and Poland — and I am convinced that if a similar situation emerges this year too, our European partners will help us resolve this problem", Bauer said. The ambassador underscored that it is "guaranteed" that Ukraine remains a transit country for the natural gas crossing its territory towards Europe. "Ukraine, considering all the aspects relating this matter, will remain a transit country for the natural gas crossing Ukraine, this is guaranteed. I think that cutting the gas exports to Ukraine is not suitable for Russia. We are much better prepared for the winter season this year than we were prepared last year. Natural gas is a product that must be shipped constantly and I would like to remind that Ukraine has the largest possibilities to store natural gas. For Ukraine, the most important is that there should be open market relations as regards the issue of the natural gas trade", Bauer stressed. Speaking about the opportunities to emerge in his country once the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union takes effect, he stressed that, as far as the relations with Romania are concerned, there already are daily requests from the Ukrainian enterprises wishing to enter the Romanian market. "Every day we get very many requests and business proposals from the Ukrainian enterprises regarding the collaboration with Romanian partners and their entering the Romanian market. There was no such phenomenon before. The expectations are very high. The main task of the authorities, both Ukrainian and Romanian is to provide the necessary conditions, so that the Ukrainian and Romanian economic agents might find common contacts and common fields for co-working in such a manner that the economic cooperation should be efficient", Bauer said. The ambassador underscored that there is "very high potential for the bilateral cooperation and I am convinced that entering into force of the Agreement on the setting up of the free trade area between the European Union and Ukraine will give fresh impetus to the economic and commercial cooperation between our two countries".