President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić met today with US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma, the President’s Press Service announced.
The meeting was held at 10:00 AM and was attended by Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, ministers Siniša Mali, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, Marko Đurić, as well as US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Alexander Kasanof, and US Ambassador Christopher Hill.
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“We discussed a wide range of topics. We want to support the dynamic development of Serbia’s economy. We talked about establishing a strategic dialogue,” Verma said.
“We were not the target, but that is little consolation, it is a comprehensive blow to Russian companies,” said Vučić.
“At least some Serbs, and I believe that is the majority of our people, unlike others, do not speak badly about someone when we think they will not have the same political influence as they had before. On the contrary, we then show our gratitude and show how much fairer we are than others,” said Vučić.
“Russians will be hit much harder by some other sanctions than these. I can say thank you for listening to us. We asked 5 specific questions, and in the coming period we expect specific written answers,” said Vučić.
“The question is whether the new administration will lift the sanctions, it’s complicated. It won’t be easy, or simple. There will be oil, there will be gasoline. We need to talk to the Croatians further, but first we need to clear things up with the Americans. We need to make rational decisions in the interest of the citizens of Serbia.”
“We received information from Azerbaijan that due to force majeure, problems they have, from today we can no longer count on 1.7 million cubic meters of gas that came to our country every day, from today we will start to spend our reserves much more and more seriously, but there will be no gas shortages,” he added.
NIS is one of 2,000 companies, the goal is to remove Russian ownership from them. There will be no economic consequences for Serbia, he says. Vučić said yesterday that we are facing difficult and serious sanctions that the US has imposed on NIS, which require the complete withdrawal of Russian interests from that company. “We must start the process of ownership transformation immediately and we only have 45 days for all operations, until February 25th, and only the financial transaction can possibly be completed by March 12th,” said Vučić. He emphasized that Serbia will respond responsibly and seriously. “The citizens of Serbia should not react in any way in a panic, just as we will not do so. We will react responsibly, seriously, diligently. Although we will be in a hurry, because we know how short our deadlines are, we will not rush to make wrong decisions,” said Vučić.
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Source: Blic Photo: Tanjug