Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso discussed a number of key topics on the Russia-European Union agenda over the phone on Monday evening, Sep. 15 the Kremlin press service has reported.
The sides paid great attention to the practical implementation of an
agreement, achieved during trilateral consultations in Brussels on
Sep. 12, to postpone the enforcement of the Ukraine-EU Association
Agreement until Jan. 1, 2016.
Putin and Barroso also reiterated the importance of further dialogue
on ways to ensure undisrupted shipments of Russian natural gas to Europe
across Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said.
When exchanging opinions concerning the settlement of Ukraine’s
conflict, the Russian leader and the European Commission president
underscored the need for the sides to strictly abide by the existing
ceasefire, it said.
For its part, the European Commission said in a statement that during
their telephone conversation on Monday, Barroso and Putin “marked their
agreement with the joint conclusions reached in the Trilateral talks”
on Sep. 12.
“These conclusions should be implemented, and on the EU side this
will now be discussed with the Member States,” according to the
statement.
“The two Presidents also discussed the energy situation, and it was
agreed that a trilateral meeting at ministerial level should take place.
Russia will propose a date for this very shortly,” it said.
“President Barroso underlined the need for a full respect of the
12-point ceasefire plan [for Ukraine] agreed in Minsk,” the European
Commission said in its statement.
