PM Brnabic after meeting with Austrian chancellor: EU's anti-Russia sanctions affect Serbia's economy as well

Photo: Tanjug/ Rade Prelic

When asked whether it is possible for Serbia to change its position and join sanctions against Russia, Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabic stressed today, after a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who arrived today for a one-day official visit to Belgrade, that the siautation since beginning of the conflict in Ukraine has changed a lot.

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"Relations between Russia and Serbia are traditionally very good, and today we are connected by energy. In that sense, our relations are no different from other EU countries who are dependent on Russian gas. We have good political relations, but since 75 percent of our economy is already made up by investments from the EU, those companies have already implemented sanctions against the Russian Federation, which affects our economy as well. All these companies adhere to EU sanctions and that is a great challenge for us. The situation has changed a lot, but the principled position of the Serbian government that we respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and do not want to impose sanctions against Russia, is not something that neither the EU nor Russia welcome. But that is our principled position. A position of a country that went through the bombing, the aggression carried out against it in 1999 by NATO countries, and went through sanctions, and we really are in a very specific situation," Brnabic explained.

For example, a cement plant owned by an EU company cannot import anything from Russia nor export anything to Russia, which applies to all companies from EU countries, from car parts manufacturers to IT companies.

(Telegraf.rs)