First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic met today with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Crnadak.

After the meeting, the Ministers expressed their expectation that the relations between the two countries would continue to make progress, and that their foreign trade would continue to be on an ascending line.

“We have a lot of interest. I think that the interest is common, to develop our good relations, political dialogue, high-level meetings, as well as economic cooperation. Serbia is a major investor in BiH, and foreign trade between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina has long exceeded one billion euros,” said Minister Dacic at a press conference after the meeting.

He pointed out that the foreign trade between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina was expected to be higher than 1.3 billion euros next year.

“Bearing in mind that there is a large number of Serbs in BiH, we are vitally interested in the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the respect, and in resolving all open issues in BiH through dialogue with the consent of all three peoples and two entities”, said the Serbian Foreign Minister adding that Serbia supported BiH’s European perspective.

He said that outstanding issues between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina should be resolved “step by step” - from determining the boundary line to problems such as the investigation of war crimes, missing persons and other issues.

BiH Foreign Minister Crnadak estimated that the joint session of the Serbian Government and the Council of Ministers of BiH was a ”crown of their relations” in 2015.

“Messages that have been lately coming from Serbia are positive for all in Bosnia and Herzegovina and well-meaning. The support to both Bosnia Hercegovina and Republika Srpska is in line with the Dayton Agreement and the support to whatever the three peoples and two entities in BiH agree, it is a good-neighborly approach”, he stated.

Minister Crnadak said that the desire to sign new memoranda and agreements in 2016 that would further bring closer the markets of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“Our aim is that the Government of Serbia and the BiH Council of Ministers continue to work together to remove the remaining barriers. In 2016, we will try to resolve some of the issues related to border crossings and succession. One issue that we will hopefully be able to resolve is perhaps in the succession package – buying of BiH Embassy premises in Belgrade”, he said