Serbian prime minister confers with FBI director

WASHINGTON -- Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić conferred with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller in Washington on Wednesday.

Robert Mueller and Ivica Dačić (The Serbian government)

Dačić said that they had agreed on the FBI's help in training of Serbian staff and exchange of data.

He noted that he had invited Mueller to visit Serbia, adding that this would be the first visit by an FBI director in the history of Serbia.

“My two visits were the first visits of Serbia's state bodies to the FBI, and I believe that this indicates that we have very good cooperation which will, I am certain, contribute to the political relations between the two countries,” Dačić explained.

He said that he was satisfied with the meeting with Mueller, stressing that they had reiterated the things Mueller said four years ago that there was a great joint interest in the development of our cooperation.

“Mueler thanked the Serbian police and intelligence services on all the help that Serbia gave all these years in the fight against terrorism,” Dačić stressed.

“He underlined that our information about Islamic extremism in the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo was the most valuable one that they received,” stated the prime minister.

“We agreed that the FBI will help in training of the Serbian staff,” he said, adding that so far a few Serbian students had graduated from the FBI Academy.

“The FBI will most probably in the coming months as allowed by the budget send one officer to Belgrade who will be in charge of cooperation with the Serbian bodies in the fight against high-tech crime,” the prime minister pointed out.

Dačić said that he and Mueller had agreed on continuation of fast and operative exchange of data, as it had be the case so far.

“Mueller is certain that Belgrade is the regional leader in this area. There are no terrorist groups or organized crime groups that we are planning to protect. On the contrary, we intend to arrest them all in cooperation with our partners and in this sense our cooperation with other U.S. agencies in charge of the rule of law is crucial,” the PM pointed out.

Besides Dačić, the Serbian delegation to Washington also includes State Secretary in the Interior Ministry Vladimir Božović.