Organization of American States official visits Serbia

Organization of American States official visits Serbia

"We must work on overcoming double standards," Almagro said at a joint press conference after conferring with Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic.

Serbia and the OAS have had a very successful cooperation in recent years, through Serbia's participation in OAS meetings, he said.

This provided Serbia with an opportunity to better inform OAS member states about the regional topics of importance for the country, he said.

We want to strengthen our ties even further. We have plans for the future, which we want to share with our friends from Serbia, as we believe that they could make our future cooperation even better, he underscored.

Almagro said that improvements in the cooperation imply scholarships for students from OAS countries coming to Serbia, and the cooperation on security issues, given the relevant experience that Serbia has in that field.

Serbia and the Organization of American States want to improve relations and strengthen the cooperation in mutual interest, Dacic and Almagro said on Saturday.

Dacic told reporters after their meeting he was "glad to welcome in Belgrade the man who has been a great friend of Serbia since his term of office as Uruguay's foreign minister, and today he is at the helm of the organization that brings together 34 countries of North and Latin America, the Caribbean, and has over 60 foreign observers, including Serbia."

A considerable number of OAS member states have not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, and Serbia is thankful for that, Dacic said.

Serbia wants the closest possible relations and cooperation with all these countries at bilateral level, but also multilateral, through the OAS, he said.

Dacic said that with Almagro he also discussed the cooperation between the OSCE and OAS, and that they agreed to sign a memorandum of cooperation, which he described as a very important step.

Almagro is on a visit to Serbia at the invitation of President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) Vuk Jeremic.