Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Russia remains committed to joining the World Trade Organization and wants to complete membership talks as quickly as possible, alone or with trade partners Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

Russia, which earlier sought to enter the WTO together with Belarus and Kazakhstan as a customs union, now may seek to join on its own “after having coordinated positions” with its two neighbors, Medvedev told a news conference in Stockholm today at a summit between the European Union and Russia.

“Either is absolutely possible in my opinion, but for us the most important is the speed, whichever way turns out shorter we will take,” he said, adding that the path Russia chooses is “likely to be resolved in near future.”

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in September called for trade concessions, including an “intensification” of WTO talks, following President Barack Obama’s decision to abandon a missile shield in east Europe. Russia has received indications from the U.S. that it may be able to join the WTO as early as 2010, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Sept. 22.

The largest economy outside the WTO wants “fast completion” of accession talks, Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian ambassador to the European Union told reporters today after a meeting in Stockholm between Russian Economy Minister Elvira Nabiullina and EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton.

EU Support

Ashton said that Russia may become a member of the Geneva- based trade arbiter on its own, before Belarus and Kazakhstan, after she was told by Nabiullina that Russia wanted to join the WTO “quickly.”

“We’ve been saying there are different ways to come in -- Russia can still come in and the others can follow,” Ashton told Bloomberg TV. “It is important for our trade relations, and for theirs, and we will support them.”

Nabiullina pledged in June to complete Russia’s bid to join the organization next year.

The EU is Russia’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 52 percent of trade volume last year, according to the Russian Economy Ministry, or $382 billion, an almost five-fold increase since 2002. Energy resources make up 70 percent of Russian exports to the bloc, and Russia accounts for more than 40 percent of Europe’s gas imports, a figure that will rise to 60 percent in 2030, the European Commission says.

External Financing

Chizhov said Ukraine, through which much of Europe’s gas from Russia is exported, will need “external financing” to pay for its gas supplies next year. The EU is ready to “stimulate” the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Monetary Fund to provide loans to Ukraine, he said.

The 27-nation bloc and Russia agreed Nov. 16 on an early warning system in case of energy supply problems, after shipments of Russian natural gas across Ukraine were disrupted earlier this year because of disagreements involving middlemen and prices for transit. In January, a spat between Ukraine and Russia caused a cut in gas deliveries to 20 European countries. Putin has warned of reductions if Ukraine fails to make payments on time.

Medvedev also said he hoped a new strategic partnership agreement between Russia and the EU will be in place “soon,” replacing the previous agreement that expired at the end of 2007. Russia’s five-day war with Georgia last year has delayed talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU, the primary document that defines relations between the two sides.

Nord Stream

Sweden, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and Russia also held bilateral talks in Stockholm, announcing they will sign energy and transport agreements in the near future. Relations between the two countries may improve after Sweden this month became the second country to grant final approval for OAO Gazprom’s Nord Stream AG natural-gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, ending almost two years of Swedish opposition and wrangling over the energy project.

“This demonstrated that both sides are objectively interested in support of normal relations, preserving those principle assessments that were given at certain turns of recent history,” Chizhov said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Stockholm via Moscow office at Or lpronina@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 18, 2009 11:50 EST