Dacic: Turkey supports respect of previous Belgrade-Pristina agreements

ANKARA - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said on Thursday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had made a pledge to him Ankara would note to Pristina that respect of its previous agreements with Belgrade was necessary.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara after a meeting with Erdogan, Dacic said expectations that Turkey would change its stance on the status of Kosovo-Metohija were unrealistic, but that preserving peace and averting incidents was important for Serbia.

He said his meetings with Erdogan and other Turkish officials had taken place in an atmosphere of extremely good relations between the two countries.

"We are heading towards raising our external trade from the present 2.5 bln euros to over 5 bln euros. There are numerous Turkish investments in Serbia and their (Turkey's) involvement in infrastructure projects is significant," Dacic said.

The fact we are partners to each other and that Serbia and Turkey pose no problem in the region is perhaps the greatest achievement, Dacic said.

He noted that Serbia had a goal of preserving a visa-free regime with Turkey despite pressure from the EU.

He said a bilateral agreement enabling travel with ID cards only would be implemented soon.

"The agreement has been signed and we cannot take a step backward now," Dacic noted.

The meeting with Erdogan concluded Dacic's official visit to Turkey.

Previously, he met with Turkish Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop and FM Mevlut Cavusoglu.