Vucic: Gov't should set up troubleshooting team for potential US sanctions on NIS

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic requested on Tuesday that the government set up a troubleshooting team to act in case the US imposed sanctions on Serbia's majority Russian-owned oil company NIS.

At a government session, Vucic said he would like PM Milos Vucevic to head the team, which he noted should be comprised of not only cabinet members but also of other people capable of negotiating the matter with both the Russian and the US side.

"Make a broader team and let's prepare for something that will be extremely important and a huge challenge for both the government and the country. We cannot afford to be left without oil or to consume our oil reserves and have no security," Vucic said.

He also asked the government to set up a team for talks with Russia's energy firm Gazprom about a new natural gas arrangement.

He said Srbijagas Acting Director Dusan Bajatovic should not be left to negotiate everything on his own and that the team should include several people from the government and financial experts.

"Make a broad and multidisciplinary approach to all this so that we can also prepare for discussions with the Russians to try to make a new three-year arrangement, especially in view of the fact that we are consuming more and more gas, due to future gas-fired power plants and the possibility of getting supplies through the interconnector with Bulgaria and supplies of Azerbaijani gas from the direction of Bulgaria, as well as due to the potential construction of a gas-fired power plant in the territory of the city of Nis," Vucic said.