PM: Remaining differences will be resolved

PM: Remaining differences will be resolved

MOSCOW -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić says he "achieved a lot"during his visit to Russia, and that a number of issues "have been resolved."

But speaking late on Tuesday he declined to specify where Belgrade and Moscow disagreed.

"We had a number of things that we solved in the past few days and I am grateful to the Russian side because they accommodated us as friends," Vučić told the RTS while still in Moscow, where he met with President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Putin said at the start of his meeting with Vučić yesterday that Russia intends to strengthen relations with Serbia, especially in the economic sphere.

Asked whether there was pressure exerted during the talks in Moscow, Vučić said, "that was not there."

"That is not how Serbia it talked to. The Russians know that the leadership of Serbia defends the interests of its citizens," he was quoted as saying.

The Serbian prime minister refused to specify what Belgrade and Moscow disagree about, because these questions "are to be resolved," and added that he feared the reaction to the two issues he raised, but that agreement was reached on them.

Vučić said that Serbia received a favorable agreement for South Stream, because it will be paying back a EUR 765 million loan through transit fees for gas, while the interest rate remains at 4.25 percent.

He also said that it will "not be easy" to expand Serbia's free trade agreement with Russia to include "Fiat 500L (cars), cigarettes and old cheese," and that mining rents paid by the NIS in Serbia will be determined by a working group.

Vučić said that Russia has become the...