Lavrov and Vucic discussed the situation in Kosovo and sanctions against Serbia

In a telephone conversation with Serbian President Alexander Vucic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed the Kremlin's solidarity in protecting the rights of the Serbian people. This was reported on December 23 in the Telegram channel of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that both sides stressed the unacceptability of Pristina's long-term sabotage of agreements on the creation of a Community of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo.

In addition, the ministry said that in a conversation between the Russian diplomat and the Serbian leader, a common position was expressed on the need to end the terror of the Kosovo Albanian authorities against the regional Serbs and violations of their basic rights.

Lavrov pointed to Moscow's solidarity with Belgrade, which has been repeatedly expressed by the Russian president Vladimir Putin is committed to protecting the fundamental rights of the Serbian people in accordance with the principles of international law.

Issues of bilateral cooperation in the oil industry and other areas of mutual interest were also discussed. At the same time, there was an exchange of views on ways to continue cooperation between the two countries, which Western countries are trying to hinder by introducing illegal unilateral restrictive measures, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry stressed the expressed concern of the two sides about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The importance of respecting the status of entities and State-forming peoples in accordance with the General Framework (Dayton) Agreement on Peace in BiH for the sake of stability in this country was confirmed.

Earlier, on December 23, it was reported that Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic href="https://iz.ru/1812649/2024-12-23/vucic-obsudil-po-telefonu-s-lavrovym-ozidaemye-sankcii-ssa-protiv-nis"> discussed the expected sanctions USA against the Oil Industry of Serbia company (NIS). The parties also touched upon the topic of bilateral cooperation, in particular, the issues of increasing trade exchange between Serbia and Russia.

Vucic announced the start of negotiations with Russia and the United States due to the possible imposition of sanctions against NIS by the American side on December 16. Prior to that, on December 14, Vucic, amid reports of US plans to impose sanctions against NIS, stated that href="https://iz.ru/1807379/2024-12-14/vucic-zaavil-o-negotovnosti-obsuzdat-potencialnye-sankcii-v-otnosenii-moskvy " target="_blank">Serbia is not ready to "even discuss" potential sanctions against Russia. The President clarified that upon receiving an official document on sanctions, he would try to talk with the United States and Russia to resolve the problem.

Prior to that, on October 25, Deputy Prime Minister of the Balkan Republic Alexander Vulin told Izvestia that Serbia is ready to increase the transit of Russian gas through its territory to the European Union (EU) countries. In addition, the republic has signed an agreement with Gazprom to increase gas imports.

Western countries have increased sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation after the start of a special operation to protect civilians Donbas, which was announced on February 24, 2022.