Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic who is heading the official delegation of the Republic of Serbia at the 21st St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) had talks today with CEO of Gazprom Neft Alexander Dyukov and Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Rogozin.

"We will hold many meetings over these two days. I will have talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, I will also meet with Prime Minister of Mongolia, and also Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

Serbia participates in the 21st St. Petersburg International Economic Forum as a guest country. Later today I will speak at the opening session of the Forum and open the Serbian booth here.

In today's meetings we noted that Serbia's cooperation with the Russian Federation was very good, and that it should continue on this course. With Mr. Rogozin I agreed to hold the next session of the Joint Committee in October, in Serbia, and that we should by then prepare all potential deliverables.

Mr. Rogozin expressed his wish that a presentation of all new Russian technologies be held on that occasion, noting potential participation of Serbian experts in some of the projects. These are projects in the fields of energy and aircraft industry.

Serbia has had a very notable appearance at the St. Petersburg Forum, and we expect it to be of great benefit to us.

Serbia should use to a larger degree the benefits of the Free Trade Agreement it has signed with the Russian Federation. We have to use this to attract more Russian investments, by opening various industrial zones to Russian entrepreneurs and, thus, ensuring their investments in production in Serbia.

The value of trade amounting to two and a half billion can be improved upon, and I believe that we have the capacity to strive to something Mr. Shoygu and I spoke about as early as 2008, namely that trade could reach USD 4 billion", said today Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic.