Nikolic: EU membership important, but also ties with Russia

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic underlined on Wednesday that EU membership is an important objective for Serbia, but it is equally vital for the country to maintain excellent relations with Russia.

"We are sure that Serbia's EU accession process will give an added value to relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation," Nikolic said during talks with Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleksey Yuryevich Meshkov.

Nikolic and Meshkov agreed that the projects that Russian and Serbian companies launched together need to be promoted more, primarily because their success will send a good signal to numerous Russian businessmen who are interested in investing in the Serbian economy, the president's press office.

Speaking about the South Stream project, the Serbian president said he is glad that everything is running according to the plan, and underlined the need for resolving all possible technical problems in an effective way.

Russia's deputy foreign minister said that South Stream is not just a gas pipeline, but is also a mechanism for drastically improving economic conditions in the participant countries.