Moscow and Belgrade are coordinating the visit of Serbia\u2019s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Da\u010di\u0107 to Russia, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an online conference on June 30.<\/p>\n
As reported by Russian news agency TASS, Lavrov stated that the visit was being arranged because the visit of the Russian delegation to Serbia in 2022 was \u201cprevented\u201d, and he blamed the West for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndeed, the West prevented this trip simply by pressuring Serbia\u2019s neighboring countries not to allow our planes to pass,\u201d Lavrov emphasized.<\/p>\n
He mentioned that they were working out specific dates with the Serbian side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have agreed with Ivica Da\u010di\u0107, my good old friend, that in this situation, he will come to the Russian Federation. Now we have agreed on several specific dates,\u201d said the Russian Foreign Minister.<\/p>\n
Lavrov did not rule out the possibility that his words could provoke \u201canother unreasonable demand from the West for Ivica not to come to the Russian Federation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in any case, we have such an agreement with him,\u201d added Lavrov.<\/p>\n
In this context, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that contacts between Russia and Serbia are held regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very grateful to President [Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107] and the Prime Minister of Serbia [Ana Brnabi\u0107], as well as the ministers of the Serbian Government, who are always open to contacts with our ambassador. They [the contacts] are very useful, and we always have the opportunity to communicate by phone. And I am looking forward to Ivica Da\u010di\u0107\u2019s visit whenever it is convenient for him,\u201d said Lavrov.<\/p>\n
Lavrov\u2019s planned two-day visit to Belgrade was scheduled for June 2022 but did not take place as Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro refused to provide an air corridor for the Russian minister\u2019s plane.<\/p>\n
The head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the decision of several European countries not to allow the passage of his plane \u201cunprecedented and unimaginable\u201d.<\/p>\n
The visit was organized several months after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in the West imposing sanctions on Russia.<\/p>\n
Sergey Lavrov, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is on the sanctions list of many Western countries. The only European countries they can travel to are Belarus, Moldova, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
Serbia is one of the few European countries that has not implemented these sanctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moscow and Belgrade are coordinating the visit of Serbia\u2019s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Da\u010di\u0107 to Russia, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in an online conference on June 30. As reported by Russian news agency TASS, Lavrov stated that the visit was being arranged because the visit of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":56599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[250],"tags":[1689,243,151,1562,284,301],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n