MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The European Commission presented its annual progress reports on candidate countries for European Union membership on Tuesday. The report estimated the Serbian preparation to EU accession as moderate in majority of areas, including foreign policy.
"We got this mark due to our relationship with Russia. If it did not exist, we would have received excellent marks, and evaluation in other areas would have been better," Vucic said.
The prime minister added that his country wants to become a part of the European Union, but while he serves as prime minister, Serbia will not introduce anti-Russian sanctions and will maintain rapport with the Russian leadership.
"We will develop these relations in the future, we are grateful to Russia for its support in the United Nations, in UNESCO, for supporting our desire to develop economic ties," Vucic stressed.
"We talked about the economy, we made some arrangements, and we are very pleased that Mr. Rogozin became co-chairman of the Russian-Serbian intergovernmental commission. We expect that in January he will arrive in Belgrade to agree on important topics, such as gas supplies to out enterprises," Vucic said.
He added that other important issues on the bilateral agenda are entry of the Serbian construction companies into the Russian market as well as attraction of Russian tourists to Serbia.
Vucic mentioned that in Moscow the sides had discussed Serbian interests in Russian anti-ballistic missile systems and cooperation of a local howitzer manufacturer and Russia's KamAZ truck maker.
