Vucic reported no good news on US sanctions against NIS

At the moment, there is no good news on the issue of US sanctions against the company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS). Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on January 2.

"We had an open, sincere and challenging conversation with US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jose Fernandez. We discussed important issues of bilateral cooperation between Serbia and the US, especially in the energy sector. A special topic was sanctions, details I will be able to fully disclose in a few days. Of course, I don't have too much good news for Serbian citizens, but Serbia will maintain its stability and energy security," Vucic said in a post on social network Instagram (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist in Russia, banned).

He specified that despite this, Serbia wants to maintain its security in the energy issue and provide energy to the country's citizens.

"For the EU, the sanctions policy is turning into a triple failure"

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Earlier, on December 23, Vucic discussed the expected US sanctions against NIS during a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. They touched upon the topic of bilateral cooperation, particularly the issues of increasing trade exchange between Serbia and Russia.

Vucic announced the start of negotiations with Russia and the United States over the possible imposition of sanctions against NIS from the U.S. side on December 16. Prior to that, on December 14, Vucic said, amid reports of US plans to impose sanctions against NIS, that Serbia was not ready "even to discuss" potential sanctions against Russia. The President specified that upon receipt of an official document on sanctions, he would try to talk to the US and Russia to resolve the problem.

Prior to that, on October 25, Deputy Prime Minister of the Balkan republic Aleksandar 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 Russia after the start of the special operation to protect civilians in Donbass, which was announced on February 24.