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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

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Serbian, Russian energy agreement to be harmonised by end of year

Belgrade/Moscow, 24 November 2008

Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said today that if Serbia receives firm guarantees from Russia that all three parts of the agreement will be respected the energy agreement between Serbia and Russia will be harmonised by December 20 or the end of this year.

In a statement to the Tanjug news agency Dacic said that the implementation of individual agreements could begin in December if Serbia gets guarantees from Russia that the sale of the Serbian oil industry NIS will be accompanied by the construction of a gas pipeline through Serbia and the modernization and expansion of the gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor.

After a meeting with Russian Minister for Emergency Situations and co-chairman of the Serbian-Russian committee for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation Sergei Shoigu and Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, Dacic said that the Serbian delegation did not discuss the signing of the agreement.

He said that talks about signing an agreement concerning the sale of NIS were not planned, rather the purpose of the talks was to examine at the top political level whether Russia still stands behind the agreement reached at the beginning of the talks.

He said that for Serbia the key issue is to establish whether the oil and gas agreement implies the validity of the earlier agreement that included the sale of NIS, the construction of a gas pipeline through Serbia and the modernization and expansion of the gas storage facility in Bantaski Dvor.

Dacic said that agreement was reached with Shoigu that the energy agreement will consist of these three parts, and it was confirmed once again that Russia guarantees that all three parts of the agreement will be implemented.

I expect this to be part of the protocol to be signed tomorrow as an integral part of all that was agreed at the meeting of the joint committee, said Dacic.

He said that agreement was reached that very soon Russia will remove visa restrictions for Serbian citizens, adding that issues such as economic relations, the need to strengthen economic cooperation and political relations and the implementation of basic strategic economic agreements between the two countries were also discussed.

Other subjects discussed were the expansion of the list of goods covered by the free trade agreement between Russia and Serbia and Russia’s participation in the reconstruction of the hydroelectric power station Djerdap in Serbia, said Dacic.

Dacic said that at his meeting with Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev it was decided that an agreement on police cooperation will be signed between the two countries soon.

He said that tomorrow he will hold a meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin to discuss all current issues, adding that improving relations with Russia is vitally important for Serbia.

Dacic said that the list of goods covered by the free trade agreement will be expanded in agreement with the Russian side and more Serbian products will be placed on the Russian market, adding that agreement was reached on the reciprocal liberalisation of commerce in the car industry, for which quotas will be established on an annual basis.

We think that this is of great importance for the development of the Serbian economy and for attracting investors from the EU and Russia, considering the fact that Serbia has signed a free trade agreement with Russia and can function as a bridge between the EU and Russia, said Dacic.

The Serbian delegation includes Minister of Energy and Mining Petar Skundric, and Minister of Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic, who held several bilateral meetings and participated in the work of the joint committee.