Lavrov: Russia and Serbia agree joint activities toward avoiding damage from sanctions on NIS

The minister of foreign affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, said after the meeting with the head of the Serbian diplomacy, Marko Djuric, that Russia and Serbia had agreed to continue joint activities toward avoiding damage from the U.S. sanctions on NIS. Djuric thanked the top authorities of Russia for their consistent support when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija, but also the principled support to the Serbian position in the international community.

The head of the Serbian diplomacy, Marko Djuric, was on a two-day visit to Moscow. With his Russian colleague, Sergey Lavrov, he talked about the bilateral relations and questions of mutual interest. After the meeting of the two ministers, the delegations of the two countries also met.

Lavrov stated following the meeting that Russia and Serbia had agreed to continue joint efforts toward avoiding damage to joint interests due to the U.S. sanctions on Naftna Industrija Srbije (Oil Industry of Serbia).

– Today, we are facing the situation where those who are used to unfair competition are trying to obstruct our joint company NIS through sanctions. That is the leading company of the Serbian economy, and it is practically being forced to abandon cooperation with the Russian investor and, regarding that, we have agreed with our Serbian friends to continue joint efforts so that we would not allow damage to our joint interests – said Lavrov.

He said that he had talked in much detail with Djuric about the situation in the field of energy cooperation and emphasized that Russia was the biggest supplier of natural gas for Serbia and that it secured around 85% of the requests for that energy source.

– We have never once tricked anybody, and we have supplied our Serbian friends with that energy source steadily – said Lavrov.

He added that the lawful and mutually beneficial cooperation of Serbia and Russia was not liked by certain forces in the West and that those forces were trying to change the position in the market using, according to him, unfair methods of competition.

– In essence, the line that we have already seen in most countries of the European Union, from where the cheap, available and secure Russian gas is suppressed with the aim of being replaced with American liquefied gas at much higher prices, is continuing. Even European leaders themselves are beginning to say it out loud – said Lavrov.

Ministarstvo spoljnih poslova Republike Srbije

NIS a.d. Novi Sad

NIS

Marko Đurić

Sergey Lavrov

sanctions on NIS