Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Russia and Serbia have agreed to continue their joint efforts to avoid harm to their shared interests due to U.S. sanctions on the Serbian oil industry.
“Today, we face a situation where those accustomed to unfair competitive practices are trying to disrupt our joint venture, NIS. This leading company in Serbia’s economy is literally being forced to abandon its cooperation with Russian investors. In this regard, we have agreed with our Serbian friends to continue working together to prevent damage to our common interests,” Lavrov said in Moscow, following a meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, who is on a two-day official visit to Russia.
Lavrov emphasized that they discussed in detail the situation concerning energy cooperation and pointed out that Russia is Serbia’s largest supplier of natural gas, meeting up to 85 percent of its energy needs.
“We’ve never deceived anyone. We’ve consistently ensured the supply of energy to our Serbian friends,” Lavrov said.
He added that the legitimate and mutually beneficial cooperation between Serbia and Russia is unwelcome to certain forces in the West, who are trying to change the market dynamics using, as he described, unfair competitive methods. “Essentially, this continues the trend we’ve already seen in many European Union countries, where cheap, accessible, and secure Russian gas is being pushed out to make way for more expensive U.S. liquid gas. Even European leaders themselves are starting to speak openly about this,” Lavrov noted.
