Djuric: Serbia confirmed regional cooperation is backbone of its foreign policy

BERLIN - At Tuesday's ministerial meeting of the Berlin Process, which marked a decade of the initiative, Serbia reconfirmed that regional cooperation is the backbone of its foreign policy, says Serbian FM Marko Djuric.

"We sent a strong message that we will work strongly with each of our neighbours individually to advance our economic cooperation, transport connectivity, scientific and youth exchanges between our countries and nations, and work on resolving issues from the past in a way that will not undermine the national interests of neither side involved," Djuric said on Tuesday evening.

He added that discussions at the Berlin forum had been by no means easy for Serbia as there had been many open as well as thinly veiled or covert attacks on its political positions, the Serbian MFA said in a statement.

"I tried to represent Serbian interests in a dignified manner and to be governed by the motto that trying to win in a debate - like in a televised one - might not be the most important, but that the most important thing is to show that we want to contribute to a resolution of problems in the region through a constructive attitude," Djuric noted.

He said Serbia's European partners and Germany, the host country, as well as officials from countries in the region and Austria, Greece, Slovenia, France, Italy and Poland had been able to see first-hand that Serbia viewed relations in the region in a normal and reasonable manner.

"Unlike others, we did not throw any political barbs, but tried to portray the situation as it really is. In bilateral discussions I had with fellow ministers, I also pointed out the very difficult position of our people in Kosovo-Metohija, caused by uncoordinated and unilateral moves by the Kurti regime, which has threatened some of the basic functionalities the survival of the Serb community in Kosovo-Metohija depends on," Djuric said.

He especially thanked the host of the conference, German FM Annalena Baerbock, for her ministry's demonstration of readiness to invest in the many dimensions of the process of regional cooperation as well as for her own readiness to hear out the arguments of the Serbian side in a bilateral meeting.

"A mutual commitment to development of our economic cooperation and cooperation in science and technology was also reiterated at that meeting - which is extremely important for us - as was, generally speaking, a commitment to development of our dialogue on various political issues, which, while bringing our two countries closer together, also means a stronger anchoring of our country and our fatherland in a wider international environment," Djuric said.