First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic is on a visit to the Czech Republic. In Prague, the Serbian Foreign Minister met with his counterpart and host, Czech Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček, whom with he discussed cooperation at the bilateral and international levels.

"I wish to say that I am very glad to be visiting my colleague Tomáš Petříček.

Our bilateral relations have been good, with no open issues. The bilateral cooperation has been on the rise, however, with a potential to become even better. As my counterpart said, we are tied by bonds of traditional friendship and closeness between our peoples. All of which has been repeatedly demonstrated through our mutual support offered at crucial moments in the history of our common fight for freedom.
Last year we observed the 100th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the states we lived in at the time, Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
We are looking forward with great pleasure to the visit to Serbia to be made by your President in September this year, and the visit of the Chairs of both houses of your Parliament. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Speaker of the National Assembly Maja Gojkovic recently paid a visit to the Czech Republic.
Come autumn, I expect Minister Petříček to visit Serbia, too. This will be an opportunity to examine once again all levels of potential cooperation, from the political, economic and cultural to all other cooperation spheres.

As to the economy, we are delighted to say that major growth has been recorded in our foreign trade, which amounted to over EUR 1 billion in the previous year. Furthermore, we need to identify all potential forms of economic cooperation, including the promotion of cooperation between our chambers of commerce, business associations, etc. I would also like to thank the Czech Republic for its continued support to Serbia in the context of its European integration. As you know, EU membership is our strategic goal and we see this as a positive impulse for our region as a whole.
I would like to reiterate that Serbia seeks to resolve all open issues in the region through dialogue, in a way that would ensure better everyday living to all citizens there. I am grateful to the Czech Republic for supporting EU enlargement and, therefore, Serbia's European path as well. Serbia is willing to intensify cooperation with the Visegrad Group (V4), and as the Czech Republic is about to assume V4 Presidency as of July, we expect to deepen our cooperation using this framework as well", said the Serbian Foreign Minister at a joint press conference held with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.