VUCIC: Debt repayment plan for Gazprom by year's end

Aleksandar Vucic (Photo: Mc.rs)

Serbian Deputy PM Aleksandar Vucic said the talks with Gazprom officials about paying the debt to that company had been successful, adding that the projection of the debt payment would be done by the end of 2013.

- The talks focused on Serbia's debt towards Gazprom from 1995 to 2000 and from 2000 to 2001, the current debt of EUR 80 million and the EUR 224 million that Srbijagas owes Gazprom - Vucic said on Monday, according to RTS.

Vucic met with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller on Monday, and the Serbian government stated after the meeting the two had stressed the importance of the signing of the agreement on funding and construction of the South Stream pipeline and the agreement on gas transport between Srbijagas and Gazprom.

The start of South Stream's construction is planned for November 24, and it is one of the biggest investments in Serbia in the last few decades, the government said.

The work will be done by Serbian companies. Also, the two discussed additional legs of the pipeline, towards Macedonia and the Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina.