This is no time to sit on two chairs and Serbia must take a side, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday in a comment on the cancellation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Belgrade.

Plenkovic said that the visit “has nothing to do with Croatia” and is a matter concerning relations between Moscow and Belgrade, but stressed that “in the current circumstances, Serbia should be very careful about who it sides with.”

“If it has the ambition to continue on its journey to the EU, one has to know how it stands. Now is not the time to sit on two chairs,” Plenkovic said at a news conference at which he presented the latest government decision aimed at alleviating the impact of growing energy prices.

Lavrov’s visit to Serbia was cancelled after neighbouring countries Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro closed their airspace to his aircraft.

The Russian minister is expected to hold an online news conference instead, the RIA Novosti news agency said.