Vucic: Serbia, Hungary have signed 173 bilateral agreements

BUDAPEST  - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday in Budapest political and economic ties between Serbia and Hungary were increasingly deep and that the two countries had signed 173 bilateral agreements to date, including seven new ones inked earlier in the afternoon.

Vucic was speaking at a press conference with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban after a meeting of a Serbia-Hungary Council on Strategic Cooperation.

He said his discussion with Orban had addressed ties in the energy sector and noted that a feasibility study for an oil pipeline between Algyo, southern Hungary, and Pancevo, northern Serbia, would be completed soon to pave the way for the start of construction works.

"We will expand our gas storage capacities in Hungary, at storage facilities leased out to us by the Hungarian government and the Hungarian state. Currently we have 160 mln cubic m in reserve for this winter, but we have to fill up those storage facilities for 2025 and 2026 to secure not only sufficient gas quantities but also enough electricity," Vucic said.

He said the number of gas-fired power plants in Serbia would rise in the future.

"We are building power transmission lines and the network between Serbia and Hungary that is called the Pannonian Corridor, where we will have fewer network losses and where the transmission capacity will be incomparably higher than it is today," he added.

Serbia will always be a dependable partner to Hungary, he said.

"As you can see, when we store gas and when we build an oil pipeline, we do that with Hungary," Vucic noted.

He also thanked Hungary for supporting Serbia's EU path.

Vucic said he and Orban had also discussed cooperation in military technology and cooperation between the Serbian and Hungarian armed forces.

"I believe it will be advanced in various aspects and at various levels," he noted.