Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic is visiting the Kingdom of Spain, where he met today with President of the Senate, Pio Garcia-Escudero and his Spanish counterpart, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

Minister Dacic will be in Madrid to take part in the high-level meeting of the UN Security Council Counter-terrorism Committee on stopping the flow of foreign terrorist fighters.

After today’s meetings the Serbian Foreign Minister pointed out that Spain was a friendly country, the country that fully understood the issues and problems of territorial integrityand separatism.

“I am attending an international conference organized by the UN on counterterrorism and I took the opportunity to meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain Margallo and with President of the Senate. Once again the talks confirmed our strong commitment to the principles of international law.

Spain reiterated that it would not change its position on Kosovo and Metohija, that it was committed to Serbia’s European integration, and that we were preparing together for marking the jubilee next year, 100 years of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Spain.

I will take the opportunity to talk with other Ministers who are here. Today I met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali. In previous years there have been various newspaper articles and stories in very Pristina on the position of Mali when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija. The Minister of Foreign Affairs firmly reiterated that Mali would not change its position on Kosovo. They respect Serbia as the continuator of the former Yugoslavia; it comes from the time of Josip Broz Tito. We want to improve the relations and to develop them the way they used to be in the past”, said Minister Dacic.

The Serbian Foreign Minister stressed that today he also spoke on the application of Kosovo to join UNESCO, and that Spain and Mali would not support such a position.