The project "is a guarantee of stability for central and Southern Europe," Terzic said at a press conference on the prospects of Russia-Serbia relations held at Rossiya Segodnya press center, adding that Serbia is "fully ready to start the construction."
Russian energy giant Gazprom began building the South Stream gas pipeline across the Black Sea in 2012 in order to reduce the potential unreliability of Russian natural gas passage to central and southern Europe by way of Ukraine. The pipeline's route is expected to come ashore in Bulgaria and continue to Serbia, where it will divide into branches going to Austria, Slovenia and Italy. South Stream is expected to be fully operational by 2018.
Other Serbian officials, including Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and president of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj, have already expressed their strong support to the project.
Brussels has long been trying to hamper the project saying it violates the European Union's Third Energy Package, which states it is a conflict of interest to simultaneously own a pipeline and produce the natural gas that flows through it.
