MUNICH, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is already cooperating with European countries on the basis of principles recorded in the Energy Charter, but still does not want to ratify it, the Russian president said Saturday.
Russia has been unwilling to ratify the charter, which was drawn up as a mechanism of cooperation between Western and Eastern Europe on energy issues and signed at The Hague in 1991, as the document would force it to grant foreign investors free access to the country's oil and gas deposits and export pipelines.
"We have stated on numerous occasions that we are not against coordinating the principles of our relations with the European Union in the energy sphere. But we find the [Energy] Charter itself hard to accept," Vladimir Putin told an international security conference in Munich.
He said Russia's EU partners themselves are not observing the Charter, citing the nuclear materials market, which is still off limits to Russia.
"No one has opened it up for us. There are also other issues that I would not like to bring up just now," Putin said.
He also said Russia-EU energy relations should not be included in a new basic agreement replacing the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.
"I do not think we should [include these relations in the basic agreement], as there are other [important] spheres in our interaction with the European Union, besides energy," he said.
Russia and the EU were set to begin talks on a new cooperation deal at the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki November 24 last year, but the negotiations were vetoed by Poland over Russia's ban on its meat exports and Moscow's refusal to sign the Energy Charter.
