State Secretaries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Nemanja Stevanovic and Ivica Toncev had talks today with the State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Mr. Lukas Parizek.
In the talks between the State Secretaries stock was taken of the current state of bilateral relations between the two countries. It was noted that their bilateral relations were very good, but that there was room for further strengthening of economic ties, with the assessment that the annual trade between the two countries reached the level of almost US$ 500 million.
They also discussed the position of the Slovak national minority in Serbia and the Serbian national minority in Slovakia, noting that both states make enormous efforts aimed at the best quality treatment of minority communities. During his visit to Serbia, State Secretary Parizek also intends to visit the Slovak community living in Serbia.
One of the topics discussed in the meeting included Slovak experiences with economic diplomacy that Serbia intended to return to the competence of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. State Secretary Stevanovic informed his Slovak counterpart about the concept currently developed by Serbia.
Further discussions touched upon possibilities for sharing with the Slovak side experiences concerning Serbia’s OSCE Chairmanship, taking into account that Serbia chaired this Organization in 2015 and that Slovakia would do so in 2019.
The Slovak side pointed out once again that it would not change its principles position regarding non-recognition of the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo and Metohija.
It was agreed in the discussions that consultations should continue to be held at the level of State Secretaries who would be in charge of following the further strengthening of economic and cultural relations between the two peoples.