BERLIN, December 27. /TASS/. Serbia plans to supply lithium to the German automobile industry, which will allow Europe to stop depending on deliveries from China, Australia and Latin America, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
"This partnership is of great strategic importance for both sides. Germany will be the only country to which we will directly supply lithium. In this way, Serbia is positioning itself as a support for the German automobile industry, which needs this material to produce batteries for electric vehicles. Until now, Europe has depended on imports from China, Australia and South America. We want to put an end to it," the Serbian President stressed.
On July 19, Serbia and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding on a strategic partnership in the field of raw materials. The document was signed in Belgrade in the presence of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. According to the Serbian leader, Belgrade can produce 58,000 tons of lithium per year and supply it to the EU. As Vucic noted, this amount would be enough to produce 1.1 million electric vehicles. In this case, Serbian supplies would account for about 17% of the European lithium market.
In 2022, the Serbian authorities abandoned a joint project with the Australian-British concern Rio Tinto to develop deposits of jadarite, a mineral which contains lithium, near the city of Loznica. This happened after a series of protests by environmental activists. In July 2024, the Constitutional Court of Serbia overturned this government decision, making it possible to resume the project.