Vučić: Everything's agreed; we could only accomplish that with the Russians

Vučić: Everything's agreed; we could only accomplish that with the Russians

"A very important meeting for Serbia, we will discuss all key political issues. Russia is our fourth trading partner, we have a lot of room to increase exchanges with them," he said.

He added that the program of economic cooperation from 2021 to 2026 has been harmonized.

"It is something we have only been preparing for a long time. We have also agreed on the first phase of the radio-pharmacy center worth 15 million euros, so that we can ask our experts we had at 'Vinca' to raise the knowledge of young people. Everything has been agreed for 'Petrohemija' and that is good news for the workers, it will not depend more on the economy, and we were the only ones who could achieve that with the Russians", he noted.

What is important for us are the so-called "burning issues", he pointed out. "We will also discuss 'Sputnik light', but also many other things that I will discuss with Putin. However, the key question for us is the following: we currently have gas reserves of 128 million cubic meters of gas because we consume them every day, precisely because of the price. There are huge costs and losses for the whole region, so we looked to reduce them. We wanted not to burden the people, to leave the same price for gas and electricity. It was not easy," President said. The price of gas is of crucial importance for us, he said.

"We have gas reserves of 128 million cubic meters, because we consume them every day, because the price of electricity is five times higher on the stock exchange and we do not want to buy it. Those are millions of euros and that is why we consumed gas so that everyone could heat and leave the same price of gas and electricity, today the price of gas is USD 1.064 on the stock exchange, and we pay 270".

"You have gas at a price of US$ 300 per 1.000 cubic meters, and we need three billion cubic meters of gas annually, and if the price is $ 600, the costs will be much higher annually. This will affect everything, especially bringing in investors who care about the price of gas. I know how much responsibility I have and I know how much it means in money for our citizens. I will ask Putin to meet our needs", Vucic said.

He reminded of the launch of the construction of the Novi Sad - Subotica railway.

"Nobody asked how much it costs, it additionally worried me. I want to inform people that 108 kilometers of railway are worth one billion and 160 million euros. In three years, everything that has not been done in the previous 75 years will be completed," he emphasized.

President reminded that the expansion of the Belgrade-Novi Sad highway is also planned.

"We will have to go with 4 + 1 lanes in each direction," he stated.

He also reminded of numerous infrastructure projects, including the construction of the Fruska Gora corridor, the Danube corridor, the section Preljina-Požega, Pojate-Preljina, the construction of the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway, the construction of the Ruma-Šabac-Loznica road, the construction of the Bački Breg-Kikinda highway, section Nis-Plocnik, Hungarian-Serbian railway project...

Answering journalists' questions about the Law on Expropriation, Vučić said that he could not return laws that he did not like to the National Assembly.

"As for those laws, they're in line with the Constitution, that law has nothing to do with Rio Tinto or anything like that, as I've heard these days. Why did we need it? Because we're doing one tunnel and we're losing 160 days of waiting, because someone says that a fair price is not offered, and between 10 and 20 percent is always added to make people more satisfied, and they then ask for three to five times higher price than the market price", he explained.