Serbian President accuses West of duplicity over Russian gas purchases
European leaders buy twenty times more Russian gas than Serbia, but criticise Belgrade for co-operation with Moscow in the energy sector – as stated by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in an interview with BBC, TASS reports
“They [the EU countries] imposed all these sanctions [against Russia] and they buy twenty times more gas and a thousand times more oil from Russia than Serbia,” he said. At the same time, Vucic added that Belgrade seeks to diversify gas supplies, including by buying gas from Azerbaijan and building an interconnector between Serbia and Bulgaria. Speaking about economic relations with Russia, the Serbian leader expressed regret that the trade turnover between the countries has halved in recent years.
Responding to accusations by a number of Western politicians and experts that Serbia is trying to ‘sit on two chairs’ by liaising with both the West, Russia and China, Vucic said that he was sitting ‘only on the Serbian chair’. “And I’m very proud of that,” he added. “We make our own decisions.” The Serbian leader pointed out that Belgrade’s strategic goal remains full membership in the European Union.
“We will carry out all the necessary reforms. We will speed up all the processes and do our best to finalise it by late 2026. This does not mean that we will be part of the EU in 2027 or 2028,” the Serbian President said. At the same time, he stressed that today Belgrade has good relations with ‘traditional friends and partners from the East’.
