Vucic: We cannot do without gas, we are working on diversification

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic stressed on Thursday at a panel dedicated to relations between the EU and Serbia held as part of the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava, that Serbia's priority is membership in the Union, and that our country is working on diversifying gas supplies.

"It is true that one cannot survive without gas deliveries. We have always been one hundred percent dependent on Russian gas. There are other EU countries that are in the same position. We are working on diversification of our supply," said Vucic, when asked about the new gas arrangement Serbia recently reached with Russia.

He said that he spoke, at GLOBSEC, with the vice president of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, Maros Sefcovic, with the goal of creating a joint strategy on how to get gas from the TAP and TANAP gas pipelines.

In that context, he stressed the importance of building a gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as North Macedonia and Serbia.

"Only then can we diversify. This will give us the opportunity to also get gas from different sources. We have to survive and act rationally. I know no one wants to hear that right now. There is currently hysteria during which everyone is saying the same thing, so it's hard for rational stories," he stressed..

Vucic pointed out that there are Serbia and Hungary in southeastern Europe that buy Russian gas, and said he hoped that Bulgaria would be able to get enough liquefied petroleum gas, as promised by Washington, but expressed some doubts that this would be possible.

"There is no doubt that there is not enough gas for us. Six years ago, I went to Baku and spoke to Ilhan Aliyev (president of Azerbaijan), but they could not provide us with sufficient quantities. Now we spend three times more than before, and consumption is constantly growing," he explained.

According to Vucic, Serbia could receive certain quantities through TAP and TANAP, out of the planned 10 billion cubic meters.

Vucic stressed that main strategic goal of Serbia is to become EU member

On that path, he said, there are specific things that Serbia needs to solve, including Kosovo and Metohija, an issue that Belgrade views differently than some EU members.

Asked about his speech in the Serbian National Assembly as he was taking the oath of office and starting his second term as president of Serbia, Vucic pointed out that he spoke about the need to reach a compromise with Pristina and that this is important for the path to EU membership.

Vucic also spoke about elections.

"I won the first round with 62 percent of the vote. If we are talking about the parliamentary elections, we (his party) could have done better. But we won 43 percent. The list that came second had 12 percent. The problem is that a large number of right-wing parties received a lot of votes, because of the conflict in Ukraine. Our voters were angry with us because we supported territorial integrity of Ukraine," he said.

Vucic stressed that the people in Serbia have nothing against the Ukrainians, but that they also remember what happened in 1999.

"We were bombed by 19 NATO countries. And people are wondering, 'When you (in the West) did that, you didn't talk about territorial integrity'. Today, everyone is talking about it, and in the previous decades, no one has talked about it. And of course, there are deep deep ties between Serbia and Russia," the president added.

He pointed out that Serbia's strategic goal remains EU membership, and that Serbia has clearly stated its position regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

Vucic ialso said that Serbia has helped Ukraine with over three million Europes, and that our country has sent medical aid.

(Telegraf.rs)