President Aleksandar Vucic thanked Moscow for the favorable conditions under which the country is able to secure reliable gas supplies

Serbia hopes to maintain the current terms for future Russian gas supplies, the country's president, Aleksandar Vucic, has said. Moscow and Belgrade are negotiating a new deal in light of the current one expiring at the end of May.

The landlocked Balkan state relies heavily on Russian energy supplies and has been affected by Western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict. However, Serbia, which has refused to send weapons to Ukraine and has criticized EU sanctions on Moscow, has managed to secure supplies of both oil and gas from Russia.

"The matter of gas supply is a vital issue," Vucic said in fluent Russian during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, adding that Serbia "had a long-term contract and very favorable terms."

"We hope that we will have the opportunity to maintain, and even improve, these terms," the Serbian president emphasized.

The Russian president called energy cooperation "a driving force of the trade and investment relations" between Moscow and Belgrade, stressing that Russian energy giant Gazprom is supplying volumes beyond its contractual obligations at Serbia's request.

"Russia remains the guarantor of Serbia's energy security, meeting around 85% of the country's total energy needs," Putin said, specifying that "contracted volumes of natural gas are being delivered as scheduled via the TurkStream route."

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According to the contract that runs until May 31, Belgrade pays just $275 per 1,000 cubic meters - far less than the European market rate, which has been fluctuating around $400 after surging to an annual high of $665 in early February.

Vucic came to Moscow on Friday to attend the Victory Day celebrations held in the Russian capital, despite a recent health scare that forced him to cut short a trip to the US and cancel a planned meeting with President Donald Trump in Florida. The Serbian president, along with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, visited Russia despite facing significant pressure from Brussels.

(RT.com)