Dacic: Serbia-Russia intergovernmental committee to meet in autumn

MOSCOW - Serbian First Deputy PM and FM Ivica Dacic said on Thursday evening that, under an agreement he had reached with Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, a Serbia-Russia intergovernmental committee on trade, economic and scientific and technical cooperation would meet in Moscow in the autumn.

Dacic added that Reshetnikov, who co-chairs the committee, would visit Serbia in June for preparations for the session of the body - which has not met since 2021 - and to see what areas Serbia and Russia could work on to advance bilateral cooperation, in the energy and railway sectors in particular.

"That cooperation is very important for us to have energy security in terms of electricity, which means that we must already start discussions about a new natural gas arrangement as the present one expires at the end of 2025, and our industry depends on it," Dacic said after a meeting with Reshetnikov.

He also said Western demands that Serbia impose sanctions on Russia were cynical and ironic as countries that had imposed sanctions had higher trade volumes with Russia than Serbia, which has not introduced sanctions.

"That is what their double standards are, but we need to see how to maintain economic cooperation in the given conditions," Dacic said, noting that Serbia's external trade with Russia had shrunk by 30 pct last year compared to 2022 due to sanctions on Russia.