Mali: Progress made in talks with MOL, response to our proposal due on Tue or Wed

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Tuesday progress had been made in talks with Hungary's MOL on its acquisition of a Russian-majority stake in the Serbian oil company NIS and that MOL's response to the latest proposal by the Serbian side was due later in the day or on Wednesday.

In a statement to Tanjug, Mali said he expected another round of the talks to be completed successfully by the end of this week.

He explained that the latest Serbian proposal had to do with the operations of the Pancevo oil refinery and a few other outstanding issues that had not been resolved in the talks.

"And then we will see. I am optimistic we can close this round of the talks by the end of the week. Of course, that depends on both them and us, and we are not giving up," Mali said when asked about progress in the talks, with a new deadline set by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for the conclusion of the talks to expire on June 6.

Mali said the crisis was not a result of any actions by the Serbian side, and noted that the OFAC had extended its deadlines several times in the past.

"It is in their interest, too, to have this crisis resolved in the best possible way. So, as far as we are concerned, we continue the discussions with MOL in good faith, with the aim of completing them in the shortest possible time," Mali said.

Since October 9, 2025, NIS has been under US sanctions due to its Russian-majority ownership.