Vjeran Pirsic said at a press conference on Thursday that he could confirm news that Russian oil companies were abandoning the opening of a new oil transport route through the Druzba Adria project and that the decision was influenced by the announced construction of a 4,000 kilometre long oil pipeline to the Pacific.
"Russia, which towards the end of 2002 signed an intergovernmental agreement with Belarus, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine on cooperation in implementing the project and the integration of the Druzba and Adria pipelines, has never and nowhere officially stated that it is abandoning (the project) or that it intends to do so," the Russian Embassy said in a statement on Friday.
"We continue to adhere to the commitments we have assumed," the Embassy said.
The statement said that "articles in Russian newspapers saying that Russia is ostensibly no longer interested in the Druzba Adria project reflect solely the views of their authors and cannot be viewed as an official Russian position."
"As we understand, it is the Croatian side that is inclined to abandoning the project, to which of course it is fully entitled. Such abandonment, however, must go through the procedure provided for under Article 10 of the said agreement, and official notification thereof is to be sent to the depositor, in this case the Hungarian government," the Embassy said.