First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic participated today at the 13th session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation, as Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee and Head of the Serbian Delegation.

The Serbian Foreign Minister also led a delegation of the Republic of Serbia in the talks with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak.

After the meeting, Minister Dacic pointed out that the economic relations between Serbia and Russia are good, but still below the level of political relations.

"Three billion dollars worth of trade is still too little to indicate the very good political relations existing between Russia and Serbia. Therefore, our goal is to enhance the trade as much as possible", said Dacic emphasizing that during the talks in Moscow a range of bilateral economic issues, particularly further trade liberalization and expansion of the list of Serbian exports free of duty, were discussed.

The Serbian Foreign Minister specifically addressed the energy issue, because most of the trade between the two countries is made up of oil and gas imports to Serbia.

Dacic said that Serbia and Russia have no problem about the "South Stream" project: "Serbia wants to build the 'South Stream', preparations are going well, all other problems Russia has to solve with Brussels", said Dacic, and stressed that Serbia wanted to continue the cooperation with Russia in the energy sector and solve the issue of privatization of some companies.

"It is important to ensure energy supplies for the coming winter, so that Serbia, in the event of crisis in the flow of gas through Ukraine, finds a way of being supplied by the Russian partners", he explained.

As a separate issue, Minister Dacic singled out debts to "Gazprom" and the Petroleum Industry of Serbia, as well as the possibility to resolve the issue of some companies, such as "Petrochemicals" through the state's policy of repaying such debts.
"We expect assistance from the Russian side to solve the problem of "Petrochemical complex", especially in finding a Russian investor for this company", he said.

In his discussions with the Russian officials it was stressed that agriculture presented our big opportunity for development, especially because of the free trade regime in place with the Russian Federation for more than 10 years. In contrast to the energy sector, Dacic stressed, the Serbian agriculture recorded a surplus.

Finally, the Serbian Foreign Minister reiterated once again that Serbia would foster its friendship with Russia.
"Serbia is the only country aspiring to become an EU member which has not joined the sanctions against Russia. We will continue our cooperation and look forward with great joy to President Putin's visit next week".