President Nikolic, FM Dacic meet with U.S. official Nuland

President Nikolic, FM Dacic meet with U.S. official Nuland

"Serbia is acting responsibly towards the future of the region by not responding to individual sporadic provocations by our neighbors, and we do not perceive it as our weakness, but as an investment in our citizens' better life," said Nikolic.

He also told Nuland it was good that a British draft resolution on Srebrenica failed in the UN Security Council, "because we would be confronting each other again instead of working together on a better future." Nikolic added that "we are losing time by recalling the past of our mutual conflicts."

The president also said it was "a very devastating fact that the next day such a resolution was passed by the European Parliament," and that it was proposed by parliament members from Croatia, "who should have recalled the suffering of Serbs in the Second World War, and after it."

"Serbia has invested a lot of effort to reduce tensions in the Balkans, and with its reforms and work to arrange the country in the past few years it certainly deserves to as soon as possible become a full member of the EU," Nikolic said, according to a statement from his press office.

Victoria Nuland has been quoted as saying that the United States "supports Serbia on its path towards European integration and is ready to help in this."

"The partnership between our two countries strengthens through our joint efforts and America is very interested to see Serbia in the European family of nations," said Nuland, according to the statement.

She "welcomed the progress made by Serbia through reforms aimed at modernizing the country."

Nuland is also due to meet today with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, who said that "all the difficult topics" would be on the table.

Ukraine crisis

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland told Serbian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Ivica Dacic that Serbia has the full support of the U.S. in its efforts to restore peace in Ukraine.

Dacic stressed that for Serbia, and for him personally as the chair of OSCE, the priority is to find a solution acceptable to all, to restore peace and gradually normalize the situation in Ukraine by continuing the OSCE-mediated dialogue, the Serbian Foreign Ministry said.

With the support of our international partners, we aim to ensure the respect of the ceasefire on the ground and the progress in political talks to put an end to the crisis, said Dacic.

Nuland underlined that Serbian OSCE Chairmanship has full support of the U.S. in its efforts to establish peace in Ukraine by ensuring full compliance and implementation of the Minsk Agreements, noting that the OSCE is currently experiencing a renaissance.

The U.S. state official is visiting Serbia as part of her official tour of the Western Balkans.