Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivan Mrkic and Ambassador of Japan to Belgrade Masafumi Kuroki signed today, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Agreement on the Grant of 500 million Japanese yen (app. 3.57 million euro) by the Government of Japan to the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

In the framework of this grant, the Republic of Serbia will receive environmentally friendly vehicles of the latest generation for public sector purposes, as support of the efforts made by the Government of R. Serbia to improve and protect the environment.

Foreign Minister Mrkic expressed his deep gratitude to the Government of Japan for its most recent grant and recalled that the relations between the two states were established 132 years ago. Minister Mrkic also thanked the Japanese Ambassador for his country's overall humanitarian, developmental and technical assistance to Serbia, assessing that this was yet another, in the series of Japanese friendly gestures to Serbia.

Serbian Foreign Minister reiterated Serbia's interest to further enhance comprehensive cooperation between the two countries and extended an invitation to members of the Japanese Imperial Family to visit the Republic of Serbia.