Selakovic: Deepening cooperation with Latvia on Serbia's path to the EU
At a joint press conference after the meeting, Minister Selakovic said that he was pleased with the talks which were, among other issues, focused on deepening cooperation with Latvia in the process of European integration.
"Our plans and intentions are evidenced by the Memorandum of Cooperation between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs that we have just signed, which defines our good will to hold regular political consultations in the coming period, to exchange experiences in the field of European integration, but also to contribute as two ministries to the additional development of economic cooperation", the Head of Serbian diplomacy stated.
According to Minister Selakovic, Serbia’s European path was a constant and a strategic commitment of our citizens and our state.
Minister Selakovic said that he discussed with his Latvian counterpart the political developments in the regions where the two countries are located, the deepening of cooperation, as well as the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, the need to continue the dialogue, but also to implement the agreements reached so far, especially when it comes to the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities.
He said that more than three thousand days passed since the First Brussels Agreement, and that Pristina had not yet fulfilled its obligations.
"We will continue discussing this topic. I expressed gratitude to my colleague for the readiness of Latvia to increase its contingent within KFOR units, which means a lot to us when it comes to preserving and maintaining security and stability on the ground", Minister Selakovic underlined.
The Serbian Foreign Minister said that he also talked with his Latvian counterpart about cooperation at the multilateral level and the readiness of both countries to mutually support their candidacies in the upcoming period, while welcoming in particular the Latvian colleague's initiative to appoint Bojan Kostic as Honorary Consul in Serbia.
As he stated, they agreed that the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries was at a modest level, that there were many more opportunities for it to develop in the future, and they also touched upon cooperation in the field of IT.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkēvičs noted that Serbia made great progress in the process of European integration in the past years, and congratulated on the successfully held referendum on constitutional amendments.
"It is important for Latvia that there is a credible EU enlargement process in the Western Balkans and that the candidate countries meet all criteria, from agriculture, the rule of law and judiciary, to foreign policy harmonization", Rinkēvičs said.
He added that they agreed that there was a lack of regular high-level dialogue at the bilateral level, but that there was a mutual desire for that to be corrected.
When it comes to economic relations and cooperation, Minister Rinkēvičs stated that there was a lot of room for intensifying cooperation, especially in the IT sector.
He also added that Latvia supported the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and that its stance was that all of the agreements reached need to be implemented.
