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The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Ashgabat International Energy Charter Forum entitled as Towards a Multilateral Framework Agreement on Transit of Energy Resources. The forum, held on 30-31 May, attracted huge interest of the world energy community. Vadim Zakrevsky and Urban Rusnak focused their attention on the preparation of the framework agreement on the transit of energy resources. An agreement was reached that the secretariat of the Energy Charter will submit the draft agreement to the Eurasian Economic Commission, since the document is in the interests of the producing, consuming and transit member states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The deputy energy minister emphasized the importance of providing access to the EU markets for Belarus with a view to exporting electricity there. “Belarus plans to take part in the European Union energy market, using the platform of the Energy Charter as well,” Vadim Zakrevsky stressed.

The deputy minister told BelTA that Belarus’ participation in such events as the Ashgabat forum promotes the country’s positions on the Eurasian energy platform where there is a huge potential for cooperation, and also helps see in Belarus a reliable partner in transit of energy resources. He also took note of a scale of the Ashgabat forum which widely discusses the areas of the promising multilateral framework agreement on the transit of energy resources.

Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic, in his video address to the participants of the forum, expressed hope that in the coming years the Caspian and Central Asian region and the European Union will be developing mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide range of areas, including the energy sector. In his words, gas plays an important role in a long-term transition period to the low-carbon economy. Trends on the international gas markets, transport infrastructure, cross-border trade in electricity, and also the development of regional electricity markets remain top priority for the development of energy systems.

The vice president of the European Commission extended congratulations to Turkmenistan on the completion of the construction of the East-West pipeline and the work on the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline. He expressed confidence that the experience gained in such large projects will be useful for the diversification of supplies and routes to the European Union, and the South gas corridor in particular, and its possible extension to Central Asia through the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline.