Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic met today with Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Serbia Tomáš Kuchta and discussed further strengthening of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Minister Selakovic noted that the relations between Serbia and the Czech Republic were traditionally good, friendly and without open issues, that they were characterized by continuous and intensive political dialogue at all levels, as well as cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.

"The upcoming visit by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš to Serbia demonstrates that bilateral relations between our two countries are good and that they are developing and deepening", Selakovic said, emphasizing that excellent personal relations between the two Presidents, Vucic and Zeman, as well as the relations President Vucic and Prime Minister Brnabic fostered with Prime Minister Babiš, were a contributing factor to that end.

Minister Selakovic thanked the Czech Republic for its continued support to the process of European integration of Serbia, both bilaterally and within the Visegrad Group (V4).

"Full membership of the EU is a strategic goal of Serbia and it is of key interest for us to preserve stability and maintain cooperation among all in the region", Selakovic said, adding that the “mini-Schengen" initiative was launched out of the need for the region to take an active role in the process of moving towards the EU and accelerate processes that would have it prepared for EU membership in the future. In this context, the Minister said that the experiences of the Visegrad Group, and the expanded format of regional cooperation at the political level of the V4 and the Western Balkans, were invaluable to the entire region.

The Serbian Foreign Minister emphasized Serbia's commitment to intensifying economic cooperation with the Czech Republic, as well as that our country was actively working to open up new opportunities for greater inflow of Czech investments in our country.

Selakovic underlined that he was pleased that his Czech counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Petříček, had confirmed that he would visit Belgrade at the end of March with a delegation of businesspersons, which, according to the Serbian Foreign Minister, demonstrated that the economic cooperation was strengthening and deepening.

Belgrade,

8 February 2021