PM talks about "stability, strong economy, democracy"

PM talks about "stability, strong economy, democracy"

Addressing the guests and host Daniel Serwer, Vucic underscored that Serbia is "a pillar of stability in the region and presented the details of his foreign policy activities in the past year, starting with the first visit of an Albanian prime minister to Serbia after almost 17 years, the visit to Sarajevo, Zagreb and the first ever visit of a Serbian prime minister to Albania last week."

Vucic "underscored that Serbia has good relations with all the countries in the region and underscored the importance of the dialogue with Pristina which largely contributed to the stability in the entire region," Tanjug said, quoting a government statement.

The prime minister also presented economic measures, fiscal consolidation, new laws and legal system reforms.

The Balkans is still a sensitive region but I hope that we will manage to preserve stability, Vucic said and added that the forecast for Serbia is not bad, but the biggest challenge for the country is embodied in the preservation of political stability in the region.

In this task, we expect to get support of the EU, Vucic said.

According to him, "Serbia today says what it thinks and does what it says, and this is the difference between the current Serbia and the one from the past, which is why the country is a reliable partner."

Serbia is a very reliable partner to the West, he underscored.

"We have fulfilled what we said and promised. I will not say anything I will not fulfill, I have not said we will recognize the independence of Kosovo, but I have promised we will solve the Bytyqi case and you will see that we fulfill our promises. I think this is why Serbia is a reliable partner today," he said and added that, despite difficulties, a lot has been accomplished in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue so far.

He pointed out that an agreement on judiciary and an implementation plan have been made, adding that the issues of civil protection and municipal budgets have been resolved, and that the process of opening two crossings on the administrative line is underway, in keeping with the integrated border management agreement.

"Also, we have influenced Kosovo Serbs to return to Kosovo institutions. We are not far from reaching an agreement on insurance, and I hope we will make significant progress in terms of the community of Serb municipalities (ZSO)," the PM said.

Earlier in the day, Vucic conferred in Washington with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland.

The meeting "covered Serbia's European integration, bilateral relations, work on the Bytyqi brothers case, regional challenges in the time to come and energy security of Serbia, Western Balkans and Europe," Tanjug said.