Vucic Says Talks to Croatian Prime Minister about NIS

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Copenhagen on Oct. 2 after arriving to attend a European Political Community summit that he talked to Andrej Plenkovic about the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) against which the U.S. has postponed sanctions to Oct. 8, stressing that the Croatian prime minister “understands the situation that Serbia is in well.”

Vucic said that he talked to Plenkovic on Oct. 1 at a dinner organized by the Danish king and queen for the participants of the summit. “I talked to Andrej Plenkovic, who understands the situation that Serbia is in well.. This is not just a question of importing oil, but a matter of financial sanctions,” Vucic told reporters upon arriving at the summit.

The enactment of the U.S. sanctions against NIS was postponed for Oct. 8 after the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a new, special license delaying the sanctions and allowing NIS to continue operating smoothly until that date. The Adriatic pipeline (JANAF) extended its license for continuing oil shipments to the NIS-owned Pancevo refinery until Oct. 8.

Vucic denied claims that Serbia lacked a domestic bank to cooperate with NIS and pointed to the Postanska Stedionica bank, as well as private banks working with NIS. "You cannot lose every bank over one company, that is simply impossible,” Vucic said, adding that “there will be many problems in every respect” as well as that he could only discuss these problems in a limited way at the summit because the Russians and Americans were responsible for the issue.