Vucic Says Turkey Is the Biggest Player in the Balkans, Serbia Striving to Build Friendly Relations with It

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade, Oct. 11 2024 (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Oct. 11 that Serbia “was striving” to build friendly relations with Turkey, which he described as “the biggest player in the Balkans and an important political and economic power in Eurasia and globally.”

Vucic said during a joint press conference in Belgrade with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that bilateral trade “has increased sevenfold” over the past few years, and that in the first eight months of the year it had reached nearly two billion euros.

“Trade will go up to just over EUR2.6 billion by the end of the year, and the target is five billion,” Vucic said at the Palace of Serbia, adding that he was grateful to the Turkish president, whom he called a "friend," for “always expressing goodwill to visit Serbia.” Vucic added that Erdogan and he had discussed the situation in the Balkans, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia’s support for the territorial integrity of the country, but also the Bosnian Serb entity in it, Republika Srpska.

Vucic said that there were many ideas as to how the Serbian and Turkish military industries could cooperate, adding that a team was already in place to discuss what Turkey could provide the Army of Serbia with, and that the two states could develop together in the future. The Serbian president added that Serbia had recently renewed export licenses for Turkey, and that it had exported “an enormous number of shells” to Turkey.