President Vucic opened the 141st session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union last night, sending the message that a world of dialogue and compromise is possible.

The opening ceremony of the 141st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) began with the intonation of the Serbian anthem at the Belgrade Sava Center. The IPU will run until October 17, gathering 2,000 participants from around 150 countries.

In addition to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic, the attendees were also addressed by IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron and Director General of the UN Office in Geneva Tatiana Valovaya.

The opening of the IPU Assembly was also attended by Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic, Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development Mladen Sarcevic, Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar, along with IPU Assembly participants.

The central theme of the IPU Assembly session is "Strengthening international law: Parliamentary roles and mechanisms and the contribution of regional cooperation", and MPs will discuss gender equality, empowering youth, human rights of parliamentarians and universal health coverage.

The session will end with the adoption of the Belgrade Declaration. Belgrade will have the honour to host an IPU session full 56 years after it had hosted the 52nd Assembly in 1963 in the then Yugoslavia. This is also the first IPU Assembly held in a European country outside of Geneva in 20 years.