Serbia's Vucic thanks Putin for natural gas supplies

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday for helping his country secure sufficient supplies of natural gas for the winter.

Russia and Serbia have a three-year gas supply contract which expires in March 2025.

The phone call, the first between the two leaders for nearly two and a half years, was to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from fascism and to discuss bilateral issues, said Vucic, Putin's closest ally in Europe.

"We have had a long, good, open and meaningful conversation," the Serbian president said in a video on Instagram.

"I especially thanked him for helping... to secure sufficient natural gas quantities from Russia to Serbia this winter," he said.

Serbia, which was bombed by NATO during the 1999 war in Kosovo, has historically close ties to Russia but also aspires to join the European Union.

Serbia's government has come under pressure from Western countries to align with the bloc and impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Vucic said on Sunday that Serbia did not plan to deviate from its stance to not impose sanctions.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Writing by Renee Maltezou in Athens; Editing by Ros Russell)