The EU-Serbia Stabilization and Association Parliamentary Committee’s 10th meeting in Strasbourg called for more rule of law, and media freedom in the country, the European Parliament said in a statement issued on Thursday, TV N1 reports. The statement says as follows:
Serbia and Georgia share mutual values and adhere to the principle of respecting sovereignty and territorial integrity of internationally recognized states, President Aleksandar Vucic said during the meeting with Georgian Assembly Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze.
Vucic also thanked Georgia for non-recognition of unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo. The two officials assessed relations between two countries as good and friendly, adding that economic cooperation is not sufficiently developed.
The director of the Serbian Cultural Center in Paris says the disputed exhibition marking 20 years since NATO started bombing Serbia "has not been removed". Radoslav Pavlovic added that the exhibition has not been removed, but that some parts have been "rolled up."
President Aleksandar Vucic will on Thursday in Belgrade meet with Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Vucic and Hahn will meet in Villa Mir in the Serbian capital at 19:30 hours CET, the president's press service has announced.
Earlier in the day, Vucic will attend the presentation of Hahn as a new Youth Sports Games ambassador, the press release said.
If there would be a unified stance of the international stakeholders, Pristina would by now revoke 100 percent tariffs it imposed on goods from central Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Center for Foreign Policy Director, Dragan Djukanovic told RTS.
He also thinks there is a higher probability that due to the Kosovo issue extraordinary parliamentary elections in Serbia would take place in May next year, rather than in June this year.
Serbian First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has continued his tour of Latin America. Dacic is on a two-day visit to the Republic of Guatemala, the Serbian Government announced on Wednesday.
In Guatemala City, Dacic met with the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sandra Erica Jovel Polanco.
In a friendly conversation, Dacic and Jovel Polanco exchanged views on the foreign policy priorities of the two countries, as well as on current internal political processes, a press release posted on the government's website said.
During two-day visit to Washington, one of the founders of opposition Alliance for Serbia (SzS) Dragan Djilan and SzS Secretary Ljuban Panic held number of meetings with US officials and informed them about the situation in Serbia, Danas daily reports.
As the Alliance for Serbia said in a press statement, they met with US National Security Council Director for Europe and Russia John Erratt, Director for European Affairs William Berkley, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Palmer and members of the Senate and Congress.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Tuesday he was surprised by US Ambassador Kyle Scott saying that "not only Pristina is to blame". Ambassador Scott said earlier the blame for the current relations between Belgrade and Pristina is also the absence of dialogue on both sides.
"I am surprised by Scott's statement. Hang on, man. They say, don't shift the blame. Say what we are guilty of?" Vucic said while on a Happy TV talk show.
The journalist remarked that some have asked Vucic to seal off passages towards Kosovo and Metohija "airtight."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO intervention in 1999 was not directed against the people in Yugoslavia, but it had the aim to protect civilians in wider region, Tanjug news agency reported.
“We must never forget the past, but we can move ahead, and this is something NATO and Serbia are doing today in a partnership moving towards constructive relations that are of mutual benefit,” SG Stoltenberg noted.
KFOR Commander Major General Lorenzo D’Addario in an interview to Jedinstvo weekly said nothing indicates that the incidents could happen in Kosovo, adding KFOR is fully committed to implementing its mandate in line with UN SC Resolution 1244.
General D’Addario noted the only concern is caused by rhetoric used by all sides, since it creates an environment in which one isolated incident may escalate. He also appealed to everybody, including the media, to take care that their statements do not cause far-reaching consequences.