Mali meets with new Chinese ambassador

BELGRADE - Serbian Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali met with China's newly-appointed Ambassador to Serbia Li Ming on Thursday to discuss continuing the already successful cooperation between the two countries.

Welcoming the ambassador, Mali noted that Serbia and China had built mutual trust and credibility and that their relations were at a historical high point, an official statement said.

"Serbia has achieved great success in the past ten years. We are the region's dominant economy, we are increasing wages and pensions, we are carrying out major capital projects, and we owe great gratitude to China in that sense," Mali said, adding that all Serbian-Chinese projects were progressing well.

He said the successful bilateral cooperation included direct Air Serbia flights between Belgrade and Tianjin, launched last year.

Mali and Li also discussed advancement of cooperation in the ICT sector and Mali said Serbia had recognised the importance of investing in the ICT sector and artificial intelligence, where China is the absolute leader, the statement also said.

"We have lost decades due to sanctions and we must make up for that. We must keep up with innovation and we also expect China's support in that," Mali said.

Li said Serbia was a heroic country and that he was honoured to be serving as China's ambassador to Serbia.

He noted that generations of people in China, including his parents, had known of Yugoslavia and Serbia.

He agreed that Serbia was a great friend of China and that the cooperation between the two countries was based on deep friendship.

"I believe we have the potential for even closer cooperation," Li was quoted as saying.