Nikolić expects PM's Moscow trip to be "beneficial"

Nikolić expects PM's Moscow trip to be "beneficial"

BELGRADE -- President Tomislav Nikolić says he expected from a forthcoming visit by Serbia’s Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić to Moscow "to prove beneficial to Serbia."

He added that Serbia was "a missing link for a better cooperation between the East and West."

“Serbia has an ideal position. Serbia is acceptable to both the East and the West,” Nikolić told reporters during a visit to Obrenovac, Belgrade’s municipality most badly hit in a massive flooding in the country in the second half of May.

“Serbia’s policy requires continuous contact between the East and the West. Perhaps we are the link the East and the West are missing to cooperate better. I expect every visit made by the prime minister or any of our officials to be beneficial for Serbia,” Nikolić said.

Answering journalists’ questions, Nikolić said that one of the topics Vučić would discuss in Moscow would be Serbia’s debt for gas.

“We are looking for a way to repay the debt within a reasonable time frame,” the Serbian president said, pointing out that the construction of the South Stream pipeline was a chance to do that very soon.

“The fate of South Stream is in great part the fate of our debt, energy supply and energy security, as well,” said Nikolić.

He added that now, everything rested with the EU and Russia, which should look at ways to resolve the South Stream issue.

Nikolić said that Bulgaria was conducting intensive negotiations with the EU about it, adding that he had been told that Sofia had put forward a number of arguments in favor of the pipeline construction in the talks.

The Serbian...