The Minister of Investment in the parallel government designated by the House of Representatives (HoR), Ali Al-Gaidi, called on Russia to help Libya build a nuclear power plant to generate electricity.
Al-Gaidi told Russian Sputnik news agency on Friday that Libya welcomed this nuclear project, provided that it was an energy producer through atomic energy.
"We have suitable ground to establish this project, which is primarily a peaceful nuclear energy project, and we are opening the door to the Russian authorities today and tomorrow.” He said.
Regarding energy supplies from Russia to Libya, Al-Gaidi denied that Russia had supplied Libya with energy recently. He said: “No, Libya is an oil-producing country. We suffered from the issue of energy production: electricity in particular, and for long distances, it is difficult for us to import energy from Russia. Perhaps at one time we imported energy from our neighbors in Egypt, but today there is a kind of stability in energy in Libya, and I believe that production covers the need at the present time.”
In response to a question about the discussions that Al-Gaidi held during his recent visit to Russia, he said his government knew that Russia had contracts before 2011, represented in the railway project, and they discussed the return of Russian companies to Libya.
He explained that there is a suitable environment and political will, in addition to a comfortable security situation that can give an opportunity for Russian companies to return in order to resume work on their projects. He added that so far, his government has not received a real positive answer from the Russian government.
