Brnabic: Connectivity crucial for all countries in region

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Friday connectivity was crucial for all countries in the region and that the construction of a Nis-Skopje high-speed rail line would bring a different future to the entire region.

"That is why the agenda of connectivity and creating the Belgrade-based Southeast Europe Transport Community as part of the Berlin Process is one of the most important things defined as early as in 2014," Brnabic said at a press conference with North Macedonian PM Dimitar Kovacevski in Belgrade.

"...Today is a big and important day in that sense because, this way, we are connecting not only Nis with Skopje, and Skopje with Budapest and then with central and western Europe via Nis, Belgrade and Subotica - through a rail corridor, we are connecting the entire EU with Thessaloniki and Athens and, of course, the port of Piraeus. That means a completely different future for this part of the world and this part of Europe," Brnabic said.

She noted that rail lines were extremely expensive projects but that rail infrastructure and rail transport were a priority in the EU's transport strategy.

"It is governed by the motto of going green and digital, and that is what the future is," she said, noting that Serbia had already done much in that regard.

"We have done a lot and we have completed the road Corridor 10. Full connectivity between Serbia and Croatia, as well as between Hungary and Serbia along the length of Serbia's territory, and a southern leg to the border with North Macedonia and an eastern leg to Bulgaria. We continue to work on connectivity by building a Milos The Great MW section to Pozega, and then sections to Sarajevo and the border with Montenegro," Brnabic said.

She added that Serbia had begun to build a Nis-Dimitrovgrad rail corridor - an additional rail corridor to Bulgaria - and also planned to connect with North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as that talks were underway about a Belgrade-Zagreb-Ljubljana rail corridor as an additional transport link to Austria and Italy.

She also said a Serbia-North Macedonia memorandum on cooperation in rail transport paved the way for future development and ties between two already friendly peoples.