OSCE Chairman-in-Office/First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic attended today the 2015 Global Conference on Cyberspace, held in The Hague.

“The topic of cyber security is apparently a very current issue worldwide, assessed as the most serious threat facing the world today. In addition to bringing benefits, primarily in the exchange of information and ideas, and in economic development, information and communication technologies pose a great security threat either in respect of crime, terrorism or invasion of privacy of individuals. In this context, it is important to develop systems for preventing dangers that every modern country is facing today. For this reason, conferences of this kind are very useful. As OSCE Chairman-in-Office, I also have a mandate to prepare that other set of measures aimed at international confidence building, since the OSCE is the only organization having the consent of all the participating States as to which measures need to be taken. Preparing for the Ministerial Meeting in Belgrade, we are preparing, at the same time, the other package of measures to be adopted in December”, stated Dacic.

The Serbian Foreign Minister also had many bilateral meetings today with his counterparts from the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Australia and South Korea.

“With the host, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, I talked about our bilateral relations, his visit to Serbia and support to our country’s European integration process. The Netherlands and Serbia have had a highly successful cooperation in agriculture and we believe that the value of trade, which amounts to approximately EUR 380 million, could increase in the future.

With the Foreign Affairs Minister of Bangladesh I talked specifically aiming to express our readiness to renew our good bilateral relations, dating far back to the times of Tito. There has not been any cooperation between the two countries for over 20 years. Bangladesh is a friendly country which did not recognize the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo, and I took the opportunity to invite the Minister to visit Serbia”, said the Minister.

The Head of Serbian diplomacy today also talked with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin. “Bearing in mind that the issue of Ukraine is, unfortunately, one of the key issues we are faced with as the OSCE Chair, they highly appreciate Serbia’s contribution in that capacity. We agreed that I would pay a visit to Ukraine, while a highly positive assessment was made of the development of our bilateral relations, and the talks Prime Minister Vucic had with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. We will continue with our efforts to maintain the OSCE Chairmanship in a highly balanced manner”, said the Minister today in The Hague.

The Head of Serbian diplomacy also met with the Foreign Affairs Ministers of South Korea and Australia and discussed the promotion of bilateral cooperation with them. Minister Dacic said that he expected the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia to attend the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Belgrade.