Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic held a meeting with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze in Belgrade on Thursday at which they noted a mutual commitment to territorial integrity as the basic principle of peaceful development of international relations.

Dacic thanked Ukraine for its active participation in Kfor, whose troops, with sincere support from the local Serb population, protect Serbian holy sites in Kosovo-Metohija.

Dacic and Klympush-Tsintsadze agreed there was a need to further improve bilateral relations.

"To this end, a need was expressed to reinvigorate the mechanism of the Joint Committee and thereby lead to the signing of a series of agreements, with a Free Trade Agreement being the most important for further development of cooperation. Ukraine is the only European country with which the Republic of Serbia does not have such an agreement," the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The Ukrainian side confirmed its constructive position on Serbia's accession to the World Trade Organisation, with talks on the matter mutually expected to conclude by the end of 2017 at the latest.

The holding of a Serbia-Ukraine business forum, to be organised by the two countries' chambers of commerce in Kiev in September, was also confirmed at the meeting.

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