Mali: Discussions about NIS to be continued Thursday

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said discussions about US sanctions on Serbia's majority Russian-owned oil company NIS would be continued on Thursday, and noted that a solution would be found.

"An entire team is negotiating, it is led by the PM. We will have discussions today and tomorrow as well. What is important for Serbian citizens is that we will find a solution. We must find a solution, and we will find one," Mali said on the RTS.

"Our single demand to both the American and the Russian side is that Serbia not be left without oil derivatives and that the refinery keeps working. So, I expect discussions that will not be easy - I expect tough discussions, but I am optimistic that we will, of course, succeed as we have always before whenever there were challenges and problems. We have always managed to deal with that in some way," he said.

"I could still not say I am optimistic but, if we assess this problem realistically, we must find a solution to it, and we will," Mali noted.