Dacic meets with Chinese and Russian FMs

Dacic meets with Chinese and Russian FMs

He held a meeting on Monday with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, whose country presides over the Security Council this month.

"We discussed bilateral relations between Serbia and China, and once again expressed our satisfaction and recalled our summit held in December in Belgrade, and we also pointed out to our shared commitment to develop bilateral relations and build infrastructure projects," Dacic said.

According to him, the Chinese foreign minister informed him about the conversation the Chinese prime minister had with his Greek counterpart to address the issues important for these infrastructure projects, "especially for Budapest-Belgrade-Greece railroad," including the Greek port of Piraeus.

"We discussed economic cooperation between China and Serbia, which was practically defined when our prime ministers met last December," said he.

Dacic added that he received an invitation to visit China this year and that the cooperation will continue in various other multilateral events, such as meetings in the UN.

In his capacity as chairman of the OSCE, Dacic on Monday also met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was briefed about the OSCE mission in Ukraine and about the topics to be discussed at a meeting of the UN Security Council on cooperation between the UN , which celebrates 70 years since founding, and the OSCE, which marks its 40th anniversary.

"The OSCE as a regional organization has a very important role in the whole system of world peace," said Dacic.

According to him, the meeting with Ban covered the situation in Ukraine, which was also the topic of his meeting on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin.

"We spoke on the eve of the ministerial meeting of 'the Normandy Four' which will take place tomorrow (Tuesday) and which will be attended, on my behalf and on behalf of the OSCE, by Heidi Tagliavini, my personal representative and head of the special observer mission in Ukraine, and by Ambassador Apakan, with the desire for the OSCE mission gain as much authority as possible so that it have an influence on the ground," said Dacic.

While in New York, Dacic also spoke with foreign ministers the current UN Security Council member-countries, as well as Nigeria.

"For us, Nigeria is important because we are connected by traditional friendship, and besides, this country has not recognized the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo," Dacic said, adding that he invited Nigeria's foreign minister to visit Belgrade.

Dacic also met with the foreign minister of Venezuela, and commented afterwards:

"Bearing in mind that Venezuela is now a member of the UN Security Council, we find the position of that country and development of friendly relations very significant."

As part of the bilateral meetings, Dacic also met with the foreign minister of Malaysia, a country with which he said bilateral relations have stalled as it has recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo.

However, considering the size of that country and its chairmanship of ASEAN this year - which is important for Serbia because it wants to forge economic ties with Asian countries - we agreed to slowly start developing our relations and take them to the level they were at before they recognized the unilateral act of Kosovo's declaration of independence, Dacic said.

He announced that he will attend an UN Security Council session on OSCE activities on Tuesday and address the Helsinki Committee of the US Congress in Washington on the priorities of Serbia's OSCE chairmanship on Wednesday, and that he will also meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday.

During Monday's open debate in the UN Security Council on the reflection on history, affirmation of strong commitment to purpose and principles of the UN Charter, Dacic said that Serbia advocates a reinforcement of the UN role in the preservation of peace and security and respect of international law.