FM: EU should have told Serbia about gas plans

FM: EU should have told Serbia about gas plans

He said that Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak had told him at a recent meeting in St. Petersburg that the EU had offered Russia to build an eastern ring that would bypass Serbia.

“I asked him to repeat what he had said and he explained that the ring would go through Bulgaria and Romania to Slovakia and from there to other countries. Together with me at the meeting were the (Serbian) ministers of finance and economy, Dusan Vujovic and Zeljko Sertic, respectively, and they can testify to that, and I told Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic about it,” said Dacic.

Dacic said he did not know what the fate of that proposal would be and that he told the public only that which he had heard about it. If it was really offered, then Serbia should have been told about it, as it does not deserve to be treated that way, he said.

Serbia will have huge problems in case flow of gas through Ukraine is stopped, because security of gas supply is vital to Serbia, stressed the prime minister.

Speaking about the Kosovo talks, Dacic said on Sunday that "Serbia would make maximum effort to have the constructive approach to the Brussels dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina continued," adding that results could be there only if the other side showed the same kind of approach.

Asked by journalists about his expectations from the new round of talks in Brussels on Tuesday, Dacic said that "Serbia was aware that there were many things we sometimes could not say were just coincidence and that there were a lot of difficult topics to deal with, but Serbia would certainly not be making any kind of decisions under pressure."

“Serbia will be making decisions that are rational and that look at the future, but only those that offer full protection to our state and national interests,” Dacic, who also serves as OSCE chairperson-in-office, said after meeting with the candidate for his new special representative for Ukraine, Austrian diplomat Martin Sajdík.