"Vučić's visit to Sarajevo - visionary step"

"Vučić's visit to Sarajevo - visionary step"

“This was an excellent visionary step and I express our gratitude as well as our appreciation and admiration for this step, his visit to Sarajevo. I congratulate him because of this very visionary approach and very successful diplomatic initiative. If there is no stability in Sarajevo, there cannot be stability in Belgrade or in Istanbul, and vice-versa," Davutoglu, who is on an official visit to Serbia, said in an interview with Tanjug.

He said that Ankara saw its relationship with Serbia as a strategic partnership, and one of the purposes of his visit was "to express solidarity between the Turkish and Serbian governments and nations regarding the catastrophic flooding that had hit Serbia in the second half of May."

“In 2009, when I became minister, Belgrade was one of the first capitals I visited in the first month of my term. Also, whenever there was a new government in Belgrade, I always wanted to be one of the first ministers to visit Belgrade to go through the files of our common interest,” the Turkish foreign minister said.

Davutoglu said that he had had “very fruitful consultations” with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and Internal Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić, who also served as joint Turkish-Serbian economic committee chairman.

"When it comes to regional cooperation, we decided to continue our trilateral process with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey and Serbia and to organize the next ministerial meeting and a presidential summit after that," Davutoglu said, adding that the exact date has not yet been set "as consultations with Bosnia are yet to be held."

He said that the ministerial-level meeting could take place during the summer and the presidential summit during the fall, in the second half of this year.

The Turkish official then said that in his country, Serbia is seen as "a neighbor" - and explained:

"Although we don’t share a common border, we are neighbors. The Balkan people, we are like one family. We are brothers and sisters."

"During the talks in Belgrade, we decided to set up a joint post-disaster management team and to organize a second Turkish-Serbian business forum in October," he said.

“To promote Turkish investment here, we decided to have a financial cooperation, especially establishing a Turkish bank here, and to strengthen ties and to call Turkish investors and companies to work here,” said the Turkish foreign minister.

Davutoglu believes Serbia and Turkey should concentrate efforts in the area of transportation, “ the road corridor, where Turkey is a gate for Serbia to Asia and Serbia is a gate for Turkey to Europe,” and on energy projects, “where Turkey is an important corridor from the Caspian to the Black Sea to the Balkans.”