Vasiljević: Talks on NIS in final stage; final document to OFAC by the end of this week

“This has now reached some, let’s say, finalization. I don’t know the details myself, but we expect that by the end of this week they will send the final document to OFAC, and we will see how OFAC responds. They will send it, of course, but that does not mean that OFAC will immediately say yes or no the moment it arrives. I don’t know yet—it may take a day or two for them to go through the papers, and then we’ll see,” Vasiljević said on the TV K1 program Uranak.

She noted that our Ministry of Mining and Energy and their partners are more directly involved in this matter.

“So I assume that when they have the information, they will make it public,” Vasiljević added.

Speaking about how the Arabs and the ADNOC oil company, which is also involved in talks on buying part of NIS, got involved in solving the problem of the Serbian Oil Industry, she said it was a matter of friendship.

“When we were in Abu Dhabi in June, we knew there was a possibility that sanctions would be imposed. At the time, I asked President Vučić why he didn’t tell His Excellency that we have a problem with this, because he could surely find a solution. The President replied: ‘I can’t anymore, it would embarrass me to bother him with various things. Whenever something is needed, we’ll call Sheikh Mohamed.’ He said he didn’t want to talk about it and that we would manage.”

She added that in September there was a meeting with the UAE Foreign Minister in New York, and that was when the discussion first started, because someone at the dinner mentioned it.

“And he asked, ‘Did you tell His Excellency?’ We said no. ‘Why not?’ he asked again. I replied, ‘I don’t want to bother him, we will find a solution.’ When the sanctions were imposed, on the same day I received a call from ADNOC’s director, Sultan Al Jaber, who told me: ‘I just finished a meeting with His Excellency, and he said, call Suzana and see how we can help.’ So again, he offered help himself because he thought it was the only way. They are very close to the Trump administration, of course also have good relations with Putin, and good cooperation with Russia, so this seemed the easiest path,” Vasiljević said.

She emphasized that this is how ADNOC became involved and that they negotiated with the Russian side, which, according to her, lasted three to four weeks. However, the U.S. OFAC rejected the first offer because they were not satisfied with the level of the agreement reached.

“They said it needed to be more detailed, but when it comes to buying a large company or part of a large company—especially one of such global importance as ADNOC, one of the largest oil companies in the world—you can’t finish negotiations in 15 days. You need time. What ADNOC was asking for was just to give time for them to finalize the details with the Russians. However, OFAC rejected that because they wanted a concrete agreement. The talks then continued, but the Russians ultimately rejected the offer—I think it was a financial issue, and I also think they were hoping that a truce would be reached and that they wouldn’t have to sell at all. That was my personal impression, I must say,” Vasiljević said.

However, she said, everything then stalled, and suddenly MOL appeared as a partner.

She noted that MOL is a private company and confirmed that MOL became involved as a partner after a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“Again, the proposal to help was made—should we get involved? And then they, I think, were working in parallel all along while ADNOC was negotiating, because President Vučić had already held talks in Budapest with Prime Minister Orbán, I think in October, right after the sanctions were imposed. So then MOL took the initiative, began negotiations, and this has now reached finalization,” Vasiljević said.