Brnabić: Xi Jinping hinted coming to Serbia next year

Brnabić: Xi Jinping hinted coming to Serbia next year

Brnabić stated this in Beijing.

"It is a big deal for us, for our country and all our citizens. We have confirmed mutual partnership, support, friendship in the political and economic sense," Brnabić told reporters.

In the political sense, as she stated, China will never change its position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija.

Brnabić pointed out that Serbia fully respects the One-China policy, which will not change. As for the economic relations between Serbia and China, she said that they are very good and getting better.

"Of course, I expect a new era of relations and mutual exchanges in trade after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement," said Brnabić.

Prime Minister emphasized that the future of Steel Factory Smederevo is completely safe and that the owner of the company, the HBIS group, has clear plans for additional investments.

As she said, the next focus of the second round of investments in Steel Factory Smederevo is energy efficiency and green transition.

"They are also planning to make part of the Ironworks run on hydrogen, which is the idea that in the next few decades there will be no emissions of harmful gases. These are incredible things," said Prime Minister.

Brnabić said that this morning she had good meetings with Chinese companies, among others JD, which is the 52nd company on the list of the most successful companies in the world and which employs 520,000 people. She added that it is China's largest privately owned company.

"We talked about placing our products on the Chinese market through JD, as well as about promoting Serbia as a tourist destination," she said.

Brnabić also said that there are prerequisites for increasing the number of Chinese tourists because they do not need a visa, and there are direct lines that will be extended to Shanghai in the near future.

Prime Minister recalled that she also spoke with the management of Shanghai Fengling Renewable, which is a strategic partner of Zijin Bor Copper, which manages the RTB Bor.

"We expect to start the green hydrogen project in Bor in the coming months, which is an incredible revolution for our green transition," said Brnabić.

According to her, she was surprised at how far China has progressed from 2019 to 2023 in the field of environmental protection. As she said, she informed the Chinese President about the cooperation with the BGI company and about further plans.

"I think the future of our relations with China is in the field of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. We want to have the most innovative medicine," said Prime Minister. She says BGI has invested $850,000 so far in the scholarship program for our students.

"The conclusion is that we had a very good meeting," said Prime Minister after the conversation with the Chinese President, which ended her visit to China.