Djuric plants tree with heads of delegations in Friendship Park at Usce

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, together with the heads of delegations participating in the High-Level Commemorative Meeting marking the 65th anniversary of the First Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement, symbolically planted a tree in Friendship Park at Usce.

Addressing those gathered, the Serbian Foreign Minister expressed particular satisfaction at being in Friendship Park today, at a place that for more than six decades has preserved the memory of one of the most important moments in the history of Belgrade and the history of the Non-Aligned Movement.

“Since 1961, numerous leaders and friends of our country have left their mark here by planting trees as a simple but enduring symbol of friendship. Many of these trees have survived for decades, through different times and numerous changes in the world, and they still stand here today, reminding us that everything we collectively wish to endure, and everything in which we invest our joint efforts, will indeed survive,” Djuric stressed.

He noted that this applied to the strong trees lining the park, but also to the friendships that the country forged at the time and continued to nurture today, adding that it was a particular honor to continue that tradition while marking the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Non-Aligned Movement.

“Our friendships endure because they are founded on the recognition and consistent application of the values and ideas that the Non-Aligned Movement adopted as its guiding principles—the idea that relations among states should be based on respect, equality, independence, and the right of every people to decide its own future. We deeply value the friendships we have built with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and other parts of the world, and we strive to ensure that they do not remain merely part of history or a memory of a bygone era,” Djuric said.

He also stressed that Serbia wanted those friendships to continue to thrive through the people who come to Serbia today to study, build friendships, and take a part of Serbia with them when they return to their home countries.

“The ‘World in Serbia’ program, through which young people from numerous friendly countries come to study in our country, represents one of the most important ways of ensuring that the legacy of the Movement does not remain preserved solely in archives and history books. Just as we are planting a tree today that we hope will endure for decades, we also seek to build bonds between people that will last long after us,” Djuric concluded.

Symbolically, he noted, another tree was being added to this legacy today.

“May it grow here, among the trees planted decades ago by our friends and, indeed, by the founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement. And may this be another sign that this friendship is not a closed chapter in history. Like these trees, our friendship and cooperation withstand the test of time because they grow in the fertile soil of unity and faith in the universality of the ideals of our Non-Aligned Movement,” Minister Marko Djuric said.

In keeping with tradition and as a commemoration of this year’s conference, Minister Djuric signed the Friendship Park guest book, followed by the other heads of delegations.

Friendship Park was established in 1961 on the occasion of the First Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. During the Movement’s milestone anniversaries, a tree is traditionally planted there as a symbol of the struggle for peace, equality, and cooperation.