BELGRADE, October 7. /TASS/. The Balkan Stream gas pipeline is of tremendous importance to Serbia's development and energy security, President Aleksandar Vucic said at negotiations with Russia's Deputy Prime-Minister Yuri Borisov in Belgrade on Thursday, the presidential press-service said.

"The gas pipeline connecting Bulgaria and Hungary via Serbia is of tremendous importance to Serbia not only from the standpoint of attracting investment and developing industrial production, but also in terms of the country's energy security," Vucic said.

Vucic and Borisov expressed the certainty that Serbia's cooperation with Russia in this field would provide stable gas supply to Serbia and promote greater effectiveness of gas transportation in combination with compliance with the highest ecological standards," the news release reads.

The two men discussed "concrete proposals for future cooperation in the field of infrastructure and energy and other fields."

The Serbian section of the pipeline is an extension from one of the two branches of the TurkStream gas carrier, commissioned on January 8, 2020. It is to bring Russian gas to Turkey and also to Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary. The pipeline section in question is 403 kilometers long and has a design throughput of 13.9 billion cubic meters a year.