Bosnia should be a transit country for natural gas, regardless of where it's coming from because we would then be able to use cheap energy sources and have revenues from transit taxes, Bosnia's Foreign Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic said Monday in Sarajevo, ahead of the meeting between the Bosnian and Russian energy working groups.

“If the gas pipeline gets cut in Ukraine, for example, we would have another supply source. This is in the interest of our citizens. If we have more supply sources and if we implement European standards, then the gas price would be cheaper because we'd have more competition,” Sarovic said.

The first meeting of the Bosnian and Russian energy working groups will be attended by Minister Sarovic and the Russian Ambassador to Bosnia Peter Ivantsov.

The groups will deal with solutions for key issues between the two countries and they will cooperate on capital projects such as the construction of new and modernisation the existing thermal power plants.

“(Today's) agenda consists of several issues, like finding new ways for cooperation in the energy field as well as issues regarding Bosnia's obligations on account of used gas during the 1992-1995 period (during the war in Bosnia), which are pretty substantial,” Sarovic noted. “According to joint estimates, the debt was $104 million but it's been lowered thanks to the Federation (FBiH) entity's decision to pay $5 per every cubic meter of gas spent in this entity.”