First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic received today Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China Wang Xiaotao.

The topic that featured in the talks included the existing cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the People's Republic of China, which has over the past two years been marked with the rise in the political dialogue and joint infrastructural undertakings. The visit that China's President Xi Jinping made to Serbia in June 2016 added considerable impetus to the Serbia- China cooperation, for the two sides upgraded their bilateral relations to the level of the overall strategic partnership.

Minister Dacic highlighted the importance we attach to the relations with the People's Republic of China, from support on most significant issues to concrete forms of cooperation. The Minister particularly emphasized the strategic importance of infrastructural projects in Serbia, in the context of cooperation within the "Belt and Road" initiative and the China-CEEC mechanism. In this regard, the Belgrade-Budapest railway modernization project plays a major role, being a chance at the region's development and a larger placement in terms of volume and flow of goods and persons, including the projects targeted at the development of industrial capacities.

Vice Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission Wang Xiaotao assessed that the successful cooperation between the two countries has led to a new impetus in the two countries' bilateral relations. The Chinese side highly values Serbia's potential on the "One Road, One Belt" map, and in this light, its contribution to the groundbreaking undertaking of transport networking via land and sea routes between China and Europe, by way of revamping the Belgrade- Budapest rail.