ZLATIBOR /Serbia/, October 7. /TASS/. Russia hopes to conclude a long-term contract for the supply of gas to Serbia by the end of 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said on Thursday.

He was speaking at a meeting of the Russian-Serbian intergovernmental committee on cooperation.

"By completing its part of the TurkStream pipeline Serbia has practically ensured its energy security in terms of consumption of such an important hydrocarbon product as gas in the required volume. The fact that you have practically become a gas transit country is also very good. I hope that by the end of the year Gazprom will conclude an agreement on favorable terms for the supply of gas to Serbia. I hope this will be a long-term agreement," he said.

"The completion of the project to create new, necessary gas supply routes to Serbia and other Balkan countries deserves special attention," added the Russian Deputy Prime Minister.

On January 1, Alexander Vucic gave the green light to the launch of the Balkan Stream gas pipeline in Serbia, which started receiving natural gas from Russia after that. The pipeline segment in Serbia is an extension of the leg of the TurkStream gas pipeline for gas supplies to Turkey and then to Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The segment’s length is 403 km and its design capacity is 13.9 bln cubic meters per year.