Djedovic Handanovic: Serbia working very patiently with Russian side on solution for NIS

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Tuesday that Serbia, as a good partner, was working very patiently with the Russian side to find a solution for the Serbian oil company NIS, which is under US sanctions due to its Russian majority ownership.

"We are still within the timeframe we have set, we are still trying to see the result and the outcome of that," Djedovic Handanovic said at GLOBSEC's BELTALKS: Belgrade Economic Talks forum.

Asked if any third party was interested in NIS, the minister responded that discussions had been held with different parties and that Serbia had permitted that.

"Serbia has a say on this issue, we are the second-largest shareholder, the property is in our country, and we even allowed ourselves to be fully cooperative and, of course, if and when the time comes, if there is no other solution, we will have to take the matter into our own hands, through a local process, because we must protect our citizens, we must protect our economy and we must protect the well-being of our citizens and avoid a complete chaos in the market," she said.

Djedovic Handanovic said Serbia's position in this and any other case was to protect investors, whatever part of the world they may be from.

"I think it is a very difficult but just position, and that is a climate where investors can feel safe until the last moment. And that is what we have been doing in the past. We have been doing that for almost ten or eleven months when it comes to NIS. Some people say 'well, you have not done anything', but that is not true. First of all, we fought hard to get eight operating licences for NIS," she said.

The minister noted that NIS had been sold by a previous government in 2008 but that, irrespective of that, the current government would do everything in its power to protect the investor's rights.

"That has been and will continue to be our policy," she said.