Serbia's prime minister Ana Brnabic said on October 12, 2017, the construction of a gas link with Bulgaria and a motorway linking the city of Nis with Albanian capital Tirana are of utmost importance for the stability of the Western Balkans.
Although Serbia is the biggest country in the Western Balkans region, it is also a small market which needs stability, Brnabic said during the Belgrade Security Forum running between October 11 and 13.
Regional stability is key to successful European integration and sustainable economic development, Brnabic added.
In March, the Serbian government said that an interconnector linking the gas transmission systems of the country and neighbouring Bulgaria should be completed by 2019 and become operational a year later.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) intends to provide financing of up to $33.8 million for the project in 2018, a senior EIB official said in May.
Both Serbia and Bulgaria are heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies.
Landlocked Serbia imports 82% of the gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing Hungary and Ukraine.
The rest comes from domestic sources.
Serbian infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic said in March the construction of a motorway linking the city of Nis with Pristina in Kosovo was proposed by the government as part of the Berlin Process diplomatic initiative, which aims to improve cooperation between Western Balkan countries.
The construction of the 77 km-long motorway, which is part of a project stretching to Albania's capital Tirana and the country's Adriatic port of Durres, is funded by the European Fund for the Balkans.
