SARAJEVO, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Serbian
interior minister will begin a two-day visit to Moscow on
Thursday, the Balkan country's Beta news agency reported.
Ivica Dacic, who also holds the position of a first deputy
prime minister, will take part in a session of Russian-Serb
working dialogue aimed at developing economic and investment
cooperation between the countries.
Ahead of the visit, Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander
Konuzin said the current global credit crunch had affected
bilateral trade between the two countries.
"Trade dropped by 40.4% in the first four months of 2009
to $823 million," Serb media quoted Konuzin as saying.
The ambassador also said the two countries' finance
ministries had been negotiating a Russian stabilization loan
for Serbia.
He stressed the importance of Russian-Serbian cooperation,
primarily in energy.
Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom,
completed a deal in February to buy a 51% stake in Serbia's
state-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) for 400 million
euros ($522 million).
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