German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Serbia later this week to discuss a memorandum of understanding on a strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials, battery supply chains, and electric cars, a German government spokesman said on July 17.
Scholz is scheduled to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on July 19 and take part in a summit on “critical raw materials,” Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin.
"The background is a project for sustainable lithium mining in Serbia,” Hebestreit said. "Overall, it's about the further development of a European raw materials agenda and the diversification of raw material sources."
Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said on July 17 that he was prepared to discuss lithium mining and the development of raw materials if Scholz and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic came to Belgrade. Serbian media previously reported that Scholz, Sefcovic, and Vucevic would sign the memorandum of understanding.
Hebestreit said Scholz and Sefcovic will attend the summit where the memorandum of understanding will be signed but didn’t specify who would sign it. He said the agreement includes "a commitment to high environmental and sustainability standards."
Germany is seeking to secure lithium for its carmakers as the European Union struggles to reduce its dependence on imports from China.
SEE ALSO: Serbian Government Restarts Rio Tinto's Contentious Lithium Mine ProjectVucevic, speaking a day after Serbia’s government reinstated a plan for a multibillion-dollar lithium mine operated by the Anglo-Australian metals and mining giant Rio Tinto, said lithium mining is a “great development opportunity” for Serbia.
But he said that, in order to discuss lithium mining, Serbia insists on the construction of factories and other industries in the area where the mine would be.
Rio Tinto says the area holds one of Europe's largest reserves of lithium and could produce 58,000 tons annually, enough for 1.1 million electric vehicles. Rio Tinto's plans call for a sprawling 250-hectare complex to exploit huge mineral deposits in a fertile western valley.
Serbia’s government on July 16 reinstated a spatial plan for the so-called Jadar project lithium mine and processing plant.
The move came days after the Balkan state's Constitutional Court said the government of then-Prime Minister Ana Brnabic had acted unconstitutionally when it withdrew permits for Rio Tinto.
The mining project has been opposed by environmental activists and local officials who have fought Vucic and his ruling allies for years over their support for the project.