MINSK, May 24. /TASS/. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision on oil and gas prices for Belarus.

"We need to finally agree on the terms of oil and gas supplies to the Republic of Belarus. We have been discussing this for several years, and today Vladimir Vladimirovich made the appropriate decision," he said at talks with the Russian leader in Minsk in an expanded format.

Lukashenko expressed the hope that "the governments will finalize these agreements in this direction in the coming days."

"We have studied all the aspects in detail," the Belarusian president stressed, noting that "the consistent work of industry and the cost of the final product depend on energy."

In early February, the Ambassador of Belarus to Russia, Dmitry Krutoy, announced that Minsk and Moscow plan to reduce the cost of Russian natural gas for the Belarusian market after 2026. According to Krutoy, "within a year, after the gas agreements are reached, the united energy market will start operating."

In December 2022, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko announced that Moscow and Minsk had fixed the gas price for the republic for three years. For his part, Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov said that the price of Russian gas for Belarus in 2023 was agreed at the level of last year ($128.5 per 1,000 cubic meters) calculated in Russian rubles.