First-year students of the 7th Class of Advanced Security and Defence Studies visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

Acting Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Security Policy Ambassador Branimir Filipovic and Deputy Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for EU Dejan Ralevic welcomed the students and gave a lecture to them.

Ambassador Filipovic pointed to Serbia's foreign policy priorities and the results of cooperation between our country and the NATO Partnership for Peace Programme in the framework of military neutrality policy, cooperation with the EU on the Common Security and Defence Policy, as well as Serbia's engagement in the field of arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation.

He indicated the readiness of the Republic of Serbia to share responsibility at regional, European and global levels in facing security challenges and emphasized that our country has been recognized as an exporter of security and a reliable partner internationally, making a key contribution to the preservation of regional peace and stability as a basic precondition for economic and all other types of progress in the region as a whole.

Deputy Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for European Affairs Dejan Ralevic spoke to the students about the political process related to Serbia's EU integration, as well as about the most important challenges and specific issues that Serbia is facing including the prospects in the process of EU negotiations and accession talks.

He recalled that in January 2014, the Republic of Serbia officially embarked upon EU accession negotiations, that out of 35 it opened 12 chapters so far, while two have been provisionally closed. He said that EU membership was a foreign policy priority of Serbia and noted positive messages in the recently published strategy for "credible enlargement perspective for the Western Balkans" prepared by the European Commission including our expectations in that regard.

At the end of the lecture, the students of the Advanced Security and Defence Studies had an opportunity to ask questions and engage in conversation with the lecturers.