Djedovic Handanovic: Hungary has backed NIS request for another deferral of US sanctions

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Wednesday Hungary had backed a request by Serbia's Russian majority-owned oil company NIS for another deferral of US sanctions.

"Thank you to our Hungarian friends for always standing with Serbia and for supporting, this time too, a NIS request to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control for a deferral of sanctions," Djedovic Handanovic wrote in an Instagram post.

She noted that Hungary was a strategic partner of Serbia and that cooperation in the energy sector was important for energy security and stability in both countries as well as in the entire region.

Recently, the Serbian government has written to the US administration in support of the NIS request.

The sanctions were deferred in late February for the first time.