Russia and Belarus address secondary issues, amid pending agreements on cooperation terms

As Russia awaits Denmark’s clearance to complete the remaining part of Nord Stream II, Belarus and Russia adopt a wait-and-see approach to bilateral energy cooperation.

On August 9^th, 2019, Prime Ministers Medvedev and Rumas held a meeting to resolve fundamental differences in cooperation within the Union State, as Russian Economic Development Minister Oreshkin reported. This was possible due to the exclusion of principal issues, such as oil and gas cooperation and creation of Union Parliament, from the list of issues to be coordinated within the working groups, which work on an integration plan to be completed before the 20^thanniversary of the Union State (December 8^th). Meanwhile, the deadline for an agreement on oil and gas cooperation has been set before December 31^st, as Minister Oreshkin said.

As long as Gazprom does not have the permission from Denmark to lay the remaining part of the Nord Stream-II pipeline, Russo-Belarusian framework cooperation on transporting Russian gas to the EU, and, accordingly, the price of gas for Belarus, is likely to remain unresolved.