Djuric: Serbian diplomacy has obligation to present its 835-year tradition

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Wednesday the Serbian diplomacy had an obligation and a responsibility to respond to all challenges and present its 835-year tradition and Serbia in a worthy manner.

"Our responsibility and obligation in these times fraught with challenges, which require us to adapt to the varying international circumstances more quickly than ever before, is to be able to respond to all challenges and present the country and a diplomacy with such a long tradition in a worthy manner," Djuric said at a Diplomacy Day ceremony at the MFA.

He thanked foreign diplomats for "spending years working in Serbia" and for contributing, alongside Serbian colleagues, to Serbia's adequate position in the international community and its economic and political development.

He noted that a Serbian diplomatic mission had been dispatched to Nuremberg in 1188 to arrange a meeting between Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja and Friedrich Barbarossa.

"That is how old our diplomacy is," Djuric said.

He said Diplomacy Day commemorations had begun with a tribute to all diplomats who had lost their lives while representing and defending Serbian interests.

"Serbian diplomats, as well as our army and police, are in the service of the Fatherland and are ready to make even the greatest sacrifice for it," he said.

Earlier, Djuric laid a wreath outside the MFA building in central Belgrade in a tribute to Serbian diplomat Nenad Nikolic, killed in the 1999 NATO aggression.

The wreath-laying ceremony also commemorated all Serbian diplomats who have lost their lives while on duty.