Djuric in Przno: Serbia Committed to Regional Cooperation

Marko Djuric (BETAPHOTO/MINISTARSTVO SPOLJNIH POSLOVA SRBIJE)

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric stated after a meeting of foreign ministers of the Berlin Process in Przno in Montenegro that stability and looking toward the future were key words for Serbia and the region, and that this was the message of his address of the meeting.

Djuric emphasized that Serbia was committed to regional cooperation and that, as a country with growth of 3.8% in the previous year, it could significantly contribute to Europe’s development, and that its central position in the Balkans implied that there could be no European future of the region without the European future of Serbia, the Foreign Ministry has announced.

He said that his address was oriented toward the future but that, unfortunately, not all participants shared the same approach. He stated that the foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konakovic, attempted to “utilize the Berlin Process summit in the last days of his election campaign to make accusations and insults against Serbia and its elected officials” and present Serbia as “a state of war crimes and intolerance and one turned to the past.”

Djuric said that he had responded to such an approach in a dignified and civilized manner, and that he was convinced that this position did not enjoy the support of the majority of citizens and political subjects in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said that Serbia, as the country leading in economic growth in the region and centrally positioned in the political sense, would have a crucial role in the forthcoming period, recollecting that it had shown during previous Berlin Process summits that European integration, stability and economic development of the region was at the core of its policies.