Vucic receives Larcher

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with French Senate President Gerard Larcher on Friday to discuss advancement of Serbia-France cooperation, the situation in the region and Serbia's European path.

Vucic thanked Larcher for visiting Serbia and noted that his visit was the best indicator of continued bilateral political dialogue, especially as France was one of Serbia's most significant political and economic partners and a country with which it maintained firm friendly and close historical ties.

The parties agreed Serbia-France relations were seeing intensive development and that economic cooperation was registering excellent results, and said this was a clear indicator of France's interest in a long-term and substantial presence in Serbia, the presidential press office said in a statement.

"Our economic cooperation is seeing very dynamic development in various spheres and is characterised by growing goods and services trade as well as major investments by French companies in the Serbian economy, which have been expanded in recent years to include capital infrastructure projects, some of which have the status of projects of national significance," Vucic noted, adding that he expected to see new French investments implemented in Serbia in the period to come.

Larcher said it was evident that a sincere partnership and trust mutually built by Presidents Macron and Vucic were being transformed into a strategic partnership between the two countries, and added that this became evident as soon as one landed at the Belgrade airport, under reconstruction by France's Vinci Airports.

Vucic informed Larcher of the latest developments in Kosovo-Metohija and noted that Belgrade remained fully committed to dialogue as the only mechanism for finding a compromise solution and maintaining peace and stability in the region.

"We appreciate France's active approach and expect understanding for our position that all existing agreements must be implemented, above all, the part relating to the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities, which is crucial for the security and normal life of the Serb community in Kosovo-Metohija," Vucic noted, once again thanking France and, in particular, Macron for the attention devoted to Serbia and the Western Balkans.

Speaking about Serbia's European integration, Vucic thanked France for supporting Serbia on the European path. Larcher noted that there was no alternative to Serbia's European path and expressed a readiness to accelerate its dynamics, the statement also said.