First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic met today with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Eritrea Osman Saleh, who is on an official visit to the Republic of Serbia.

At a press conference following the meeting Minister Dacic pointed out that the bilateral relations between the two countries were good but that the cooperation was underdeveloped.

Minister Dacic stressed that perspectives for the cooperation between Serbia and Eritrea were great and that there were many fields and opportunities for it in the areas of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, IT, medicine.

"There are great perspectives for the cooperation between Serbia and Eritrea, since it is practically non-existent at present, and the trade between the two countries last year was only 12,000 euros," pointed out Minister Dacic.

"The Government's policy is to renew our traditional, old friendships with the peoples of Africa, Asia, and I thank Minister Saleh for accepting my invitation to visit Serbia," said the Serbian Foreign Minister.

Dacic pointed out that this was the first official visit at a high level since the establishment of the diplomatic relations.

The Serbian Foreign Minister reminded that Eritrea had not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, and voted against the admission of Kosovo to UNESCO.

Minister Dacic stressed that his Eritrean counterpart conveyed to him that he would like the Eritrean students to study in Serbia.

"We will discuss all this during his visit over these two days, and we will bear that in mind when preparing our visit to Eritrea."

Minister Dacic said that President Nikolic invested the President of Eritrea with the Order on a sash which President Nikolic would present to him on a return visit.

Eritrea's FM Osman Saleh said that his two-day visit to Serbia was an opportunity to further develop bilateral relations, in order to strengthen the cooperation and overall relations.

"Eritrea follows the Serbian multi-faceted development and constructive role in international relations. Our two countries want to develop their cooperation in trade, agriculture, services, political and economic relations.

We believe that our talks with Minister Dacic, as well as with other officials, will bring concrete results and measures to develop the bilateral relations," said Minister Osman Saleh.