Djuric receives Chinese ambassador

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric received Chinese Ambassador to Belgrade Li Ming on Thursday.

The parties confirmed the steely friendship and the deep trust between the two countries and the two peoples and also discussed the significance of a recently signed joint statement on deepening, and raising the level of, a comprehensive strategic partnership and building a Serbia-China community with a shared future in the new era.

Djuric noted that the statement was extremely significant and opened a new chapter in Sino-Serbian relations, the Serbian MFA said in a statement.

He conveyed Serbia's sincere gratitude to Chinese friends for their principled and unwavering support to its territorial integrity and sovereignty, which he said was immeasurably important for Serbia in the international arena.

Serbia is proud of its exceptional bilateral relations with China, which are a result of the especially close personal relationship between the two presidents, Aleksandar Vucic and Xi Jinping, particularly affirmed during Xi's recent historic visit to Serbia, Djuric said.

Besides extremely substantial high- and top-level political relations, Serbia and China maintain very fruitful cooperation in the economy, infrastructure and culture, Djuric said.

Noting that China is the single largest foreign investor in Serbia for a third consecutive year and one of its leading external trade partners and export destinations, Djuric said China had been recognised in recent years as a major driving force of economic development in Serbia as a whole as well as in the country's individual regions.