“Serbia remains a loyal friend of Russia,” Ivica Dacic, Serbia’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of a ministerial session of the Council of Europe held in Vienna on Tuesday.

The two ministers discussed bilateral ties and confirmed the good relations existing between the two countries, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said.

Serbia is struggling to balance its friendship with both the EU and with Russia – sorely tested by the conflict in Ukraine.

In his first interview as Foreign Minister last week, Dacic said that Serbia would remain neutral in the dispute between the European Union and Russia over the country.

Ever since the crisis in Ukraine escalated, Serbian officials have tried to maintain a diplomatic silence over the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, attempting to preserve good relations with all sides.

Serbia started EU accession talks in January and hopes to join the club in 2020. On the other hand, Serbia depends on Russia for its gas supply, and Russia is a traditional diplomatic ally of Belgrade’s.

Meanwhile, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic met Sergei Naryshkin, Chairman of the Russian State Duma, and told him that he empathized with Russia’s position on the Ukraine crisis.

Nikolic praised the cordial Serbian-Russian relationship and expressed interest in intensifying work on the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline with Russia.

Nikolic said that the project will provide long-term energy security for Serbia and help Serbia’s struggling economy.

Speaking on the margins of the Russian-Serbian science meeting on Tuesday, Naryshkin said Russia was very grateful to the Serbian public and politicians for their support.

He expressed gratitude to Serbia for refusing to back EU and US anti-Russian sanctions, which he said were completely illegal.

“I believe Serbian politicians are monitoring developments in Ukraine very objectively and are deriving very precise conclusions from the events,” he added.

Both the EU and the US have accused Vladimir Putin’s government in Moscow of fomenting a separatist insurgency in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.