Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to Ukraine Andon Sapunji presented his credentials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Serbian Foreign Ministry confirmed.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that Mishchenko congratulated Sapunji on the start of his mission in Ukraine, emphasized the resumption of the work of the Serbian Embassy in Kyiv and expressed readiness to further develop and strengthen friendly Ukrainian-Serbian relations.
On March 3, 2022, after the start of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia announced the temporary closure of the Embassy of Serbia in Ukraine for security reasons. The staff continued to perform their duties from Belgrade until conditions for their return became possible.
Diplomatic relations at the embassy level between Ukraine and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) were established on April 15, 1994.
Representatives of the Government of Serbia, the City of Belgrade and PowerChina today signed an agreement for the construction of the first phase of the Belgrade Metro Line 1 worth EUR 720 million.
The agreement for Lot 2 of the first phase of Line 1 of the Belgrade Metro covers the design and execution of works, including preparatory activities and the procurement of TBM machines for tunneling.
The preparatory and construction work is expected to last 45 months plus two years.
The document was signed in the Serbian government building by Minister of Public Investment Darko Glisic, Acting Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure; Acting Deputy Head of the Belgrade City Administration – Secretary of the Public Transport Secretariat Radovan Kremić; Director of the Belgrade Metro and Train Company Andrej Mladenović, together with a representative of the Chinese company Power China Han Jiping.
As noted, the new agreement makes it possible to allocate a separate Lot 2, which will be financed from the Serbian budget and will enter into force immediately, which will facilitate the faster implementation of the construction of the first phase of Line 1 of the Belgrade Metro.
Serbia will donate €8.4 million worth of generators and transformers to Ukraine as humanitarian aid, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview with Serbian TV channel Prva TV.
“We have collected generators and transformers worth 8.4 million euros for Ukraine,” the president said.
According to him, the new Serbian ambassador to Ukraine will hand over this aid.
Earlier, the Serbian government provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine in connection with the disaster in Kherson region that occurred after the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant.
The death toll from the devastating floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are being called the worst in decades, has already reached 19. On the morning of October 4, it was reported that heavy rains in Bosnia on Friday night had flooded several cities in the central and southern parts of the country.
After 16 people died in the municipality of Jablunice, rescuers also found the bodies of three people in the city of Fojnice, where the bad weather destroyed many houses and outbuildings.
Against this backdrop, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic agreed to provide all necessary assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Vucic previously noted that Serbia could send rescue helicopters and boats, as well as provide financial assistance.
And the Croatian prime minister said that his government is in constant contact with the head of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borjana Krishto, and is ready to provide “all the necessary assistance in eliminating the consequences of the flood.”
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, also confirmed the readiness to help. He noted that Bosnia could benefit from the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism, which it joined in 2022.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga held talks with Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric in New York.
“I met with Marko Djuric. We highly appreciate Serbia’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and participation in the Peace Formula. I informed him about the Russian attacks on our energy system. I welcome Serbia’s decision to reopen its embassy in Kyiv this year,” Sibiga wrote on social media site X.
On May 13, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced after a meeting with the Serbian head of state that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had agreed to hold a Ukrainian-Serbian business forum in the near future, as well as to reopen the Serbian embassy in Ukraine for the first time since March 2022.
Serbian company Srbijagas and Hungary’s FGSZ have finished building the linear section of a gas pipeline connector between the two countries through which Hungary will be able to receive Russian gas transported through a Black Sea pipeline instead of through Ukraine.
Serbia’s national TV channel reported the welding of the “golden” joint of the pipeline on the border between the two countries.
Gas supplies along the new route are supposed to start on October 1, the beginning of the new gas year.
The TurkStream pipeline, which carries Russian gas across the Black Sea to Turkey and onward to Southern Europe, went into operation in January 2020. Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia and Romania were the first to receive gas through the pipeline. Serbia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina began receiving gas along the new route at the start of 2021. In future, TurkStream gas is also supposed to reach Austria through Hungary.
The first phase of the connector between Serbia and Hungary, with capacity of 6 billion cubic meters per year, involved building a 15-km linear pipeline section.
The expansion of the connector to 8.5 bcm per year has been postponed from October 2022 to October 2023. Hungarian gas companies and officials lost time in the middle of 2020 due to concerns that they might be hit by U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. State Department issued a new clarification on section 232 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on July 15, 2020, stating that sanctions could be imposed against investors in Russian export energy pipeline projects. The new clarification extended the possibility of imposing sanctions against persons investing, or providing goods and services, directly and that significantly facilitate the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the second string of the TurkStream pipeline.
Hungary imported 8.637 bcm of Russian gas in 2020.
