“Belgrade was today the hub of diplomatic activity in the region.

 Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn paid a visit to Belgrade, while Foreign Minister of Norway Berge Brende arrived a few hours ago.

The topic of discussions with both Ministers should have been the migratory crisis, had the visit of the Norwegian Minister not been unfortunately interrupted.
Due to an additional crisis, the hostage crisis, the Norwegian Foreign Minister was instructed by his Prime Minister to return promptly to Oslo, following a brief conversation together with the Minister of Luxembourg, over the working dinner. He will attend the press conference with the Prime Minister tonight.

We deplore this situation created by the kidnapping of a Norwegian national by ISIL, resulting in a crisis that caused the imposition of a state of emergency in Norway and the Government of that country.

In the evening, Minister Brende had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Vucic who is on a visit to the UAE. Serbia expressed its full support of, and solidarity with, the Norwegian Government and the family of the kidnapped citizen, with high hopes that the situation will be resolved in the best possible way.

Norway is the biggest individual donor of Serbia. The visit was aimed at discussing - in addition to bilateral issues embracing political relations, economic cooperation, investments - the continued assistance extended to Serbia by Norway, including during the flooding, as well as its decision to help Serbia in dealing with the current migratory crisis.

According to the arrangements made for the visit, the Norwegian Minister was to have talks tomorrow with the Prime Minister and myself, and to visit migrants in Belgrade and their centre in Kanjiza. The Minister had promised to send financial and any other assistance to Serbia in order to help it resolve problems caused by the transit of a large number of migrants, currently exceeding 127,000.

With much regret, I would like to inform that the Norwegian Foreign Minister had to interrupt his visit to Serbia and return to Oslo”, stated Minister Dacic