Dacic: Turkey should use its influence on Pristina regarding the implementation of the Brussels Agreement

The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, said today in Ankara, after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, that Serbia would like Turkey to be an important factor of stability in our region and that the request was for Turkey to use its influence on Pristina in the matter of implementation of the Brussels Agreement in Kosovo, RTV reports.

Dacic said at the press conference that he had also discussed the current situation in the Balkans with Cavusoglu.

"We would like Turkey to be an important factor of regional stability, and this means that our request is for Turkey to use its influence when it comes to Pristina in order to have a constructive relationship with Pristina regarding the implementation of the Brussels Agreement and other previously signed agreements so that we could discuss some permanent political solutions at all," Dacic said.

He stated that in any case, the situation had to be prevented so that, as he said, we all individually, be factors and participants in something that was a problem, rather than being part of the solution to the problem.

He said that even though we might think differently on some issues, we should act together and develop an atmosphere of mutual trust.

"That is why I am happy to confirm that President Aleksandar Vucic and I will participate here in all the forums that are being organized. We are also expecting visits to our region by ministers and the president of Turkey. We will have a successful continuation of cooperation in the coming period as well. Our relations are at a very high level and I am grateful to everyone who contributed to it, and to the greatest extent presidents Erdogan and Vucic," Dacic said.

Cavusoglu: This is the golden age of cooperation between Serbia and Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu assessed that Serbia and Turkey were in the "golden age" of bilateral cooperation, and he emphasized this not only in a conversation with the head of Serbian diplomacy, Ivica Dacic but also in a telephone conversation with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

After the conversation with Dacic in Ankara, he said that Turkey would continue to work on improving relations and emphasized that Turkey was ready to help Serbia in connection with the recent floods.

Cavusoglu added that Turkey had had the most visits with Serbia, compared to other countries, and recalled that the two countries had discussed strengthening infrastructure in September.

"During my mandate, I was in Serbia five times; participated in many meetings; I am happy about the cooperation and that we can exchange our experiences. We also talked about the economy and tourism, to develop that volume, which is currently 2.5 billion dollars, and the goal we have is 5 billion dollars. We will strive for that in the coming period, but also in other areas," he said.

Speaking about investments, Cavusoglu said that investments had increased from one million to 400 million dollars and that the government was responsible for this, which helped Turkish companies to quickly solve their problems.

"Another branch of Halkbank has been opened and we plan to open more so that there will be a total of 40. This will be a great support for our companies and the economy of Serbia. Our cooperation in the banking sector is very important. When we look at all forms of cooperation, a fourth meeting of the mixed trade commission is necessary," Cavusoglu said.

He added that the Ministries of Defense had good cooperation, as well as that they strived to develop it even more.

Cavusoglu points out that in order to increase tourism, the number of flights has been increased, and that this number will increase significantly when traveling with an ID card is introduced.

"We currently have a direct flight to Ankara and Istanbul, Izmir will also be added. We have charter flights to Alanya, that line will be important in terms of the development of tourism. We will increase the number of flights, now we have three diplomatic offices because the consular office has been opened in Nis," he said.

He thanked Dacic for securing permits for the restoration of the Bajrakli mosque in a short period, which should begin in February.

He also welcomed the idea of twinning the cities of the two countries and added that he had discussed Sandzak with Dacic.

"Turkey has a different attitude towards it and development is important to us. I am grateful to Vucic for the development of this region. Plus you have two ministers of Bosniak nationality, which shows the comprehensive policy of Vucic. A Turkish company worked on a road near Tutin, grateful for that project because the construction of the road is going well and we should support Bosnia and Herzegovina to work at the same speed on that road," Cavusoglu said.

He also emphasized that the two countries had a common issue of emigrants and that the ministries of interior cooperated because peace and stability were very important.

"A government is currently being established in Bosnia and we need a government that will work on it. Trilateral cooperation between Serbia, Turkey, and Bosnia and Herzegovina is needed; we expect the work to continue and to improve cooperation," Cavusoglu said.

As one of the topics of the meeting, he pointed out the European integration of Serbia and stressed that Turkey wanted to solve it most adequately.

Dacic: This tourist season, people will enter Turkey with ID cards

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic said today that he was sure that tourists from Serbia would travel to Turkey this summer only with ID cards.

Dacic stated that the agreement on travel with identity cards only between Turkey and Serbia had been signed last year, but that the parliaments of the two countries still had to ratify it.

As he pointed out, Turkey had done it and it had been an obligation for Serbia to do it too, but that it had not been possible due to the dissolution of the parliament and the elections.

"You know that there were elections, then the formation of the government, so the legislative part of the parliament started working only at the end of October. You can expect that it will all be finished very quickly. I am sure that the new tourist season will be able to proceed according to the agreement," Dacic said.