Vucic: OFAC response regarding operating licence for NIS due by Friday

DAVOS - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday in Davos a response to a request to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to extend an operating licence for the Serbian oil company NIS was due "today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow", and noted that he saw no reason for the licence not to be extended beyond January 23.

NIS is under US sanctions due to its Russian majority ownership.

Speaking to reporters in Davos, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, Vucic said a preliminary agreement reached between Russia's Gazprom neft and the Hungarian oil firm MOL on a sale of NIS was sufficient for the US side to ease its pressure.

"When I spoke with them earlier, they said the term sheets needed to be sent. They include all the main elements of an agreement. We fully complied with what they requested from us regarding various options - which I would not discuss - and we did everything as requested. I see no obstacle on the path to the operating licence being extended until the final conclusion of an agreement. We expect a response today, tomorrow, by Thursday or Friday. Today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," Vucic said.

Earlier in the day, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said NIS had submitted a request to the OFAC to extend its operating licence for the duration of talks aimed at completing an agreed transaction between Gazprom neft, the company's majority owner, and MOL.

The future sales and purchase agreement between Gazprom neft and MOL will be submitted to the OFAC for approval.

In the negotiations, Serbia has succeeded in increasing its stake in NIS by five per cent.

Vucic: Serbia to boost cooperation with Eurasia, flights to Baku to be launched soon

DAVOS - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday in Davos Serbia would boost its cooperation with Eurasian countries, and noted that an agreement with Azerbaijan on a cca 600 mln euro gas-fired power plant in Nis was being finalised as well as that direct flights between Baku and Belgrade would be launched soon.

"We already have direct flights to Tbilisi and we hope we will also do that with Yerevan," Vucic said at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on shaping Eurasia's economic identity, adding that this meant Serbia was trying to rely even more not only on the West, but on the East as well - on "friends we can always count on."

The panel was also attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan.

Vucic added that there were great problems at global level and that every country had its own Pandora's box, but that it had been forgotten that Kosovo-Metohija had been the first one.

He noted that the true Pandora's box had been opened over the Kosovo-Metohija issue, when he said many countries in the world, the Western world in particular, had recognised the so-called Kosovo and said the move was due to an alleged humanitarian disaster caused by Serbian authorities and their actions in Kosovo-Metohija.

Vucic added that he was not optimistic about the global situation as there were more and more regional and local wars - many more than before. He expressed the hope Serbia would succeed in dealing with all challenges with assistance and support from good friends, including "both Armnia, Azerbaijan and, hopefully, Turkey as well."