First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic received today Ambassador of Albania to the Republic Serbia Ilir Bocka.

During the meeting, Minister Dacic pointed to Serbia’s commitment to developing comprehensive relations with Albania as a neighbouring country on the basis of their common interests, despite the existing differences.
Several recent visits illustrate such commitment on the part of Serbia, starting from the visit of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to Belgrade, followed by Ministerial level visits, to the forthcoming visit of the President of the National Assembly of Serbia Maja Gojkovic to Tirana.
It was pointed out from our side that a treaty on the protection of minorities to be signed by the two countries in the near future would facilitate the relaxation of relations, and also underlined that Serbia was interested in rounding up contractual-legal cooperation between the two countries in all fields of mutual interest.
During today's meeting, both parties agreed that great opportunities for increasing merchandise trade had not been used and that the upcoming session of the Intergovernmental Committee on Trade and Economic Cooperation and the holding of a business forum in April this year should help in overcoming this and other problems in the field of economy as well.
Minister Dacic highlighted that Serbia was interested in cooperation on a number of regional projects, specifically referring to bilateral projects in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, tourism, etc.
Cooperation between the two countries on a multilateral level, as well as Serbia’s role in the capacity as the OSCE Chair were discussed during the meeting