Djuric: EXPO IPM represents potential to improve Serbia's image

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Wednesday the presence of 154 countries at the International Planning Meeting (IPM) for the specialised EXPO 2027 in Belgrade was not just statistics, but also a potential to improve Serbia's international image.

"We are often unaware that the way we see ourselves is, unfortunately, not the way a large part of the world sees us, and that the 1990s propaganda, various negative information and, often, untruths the international public has been bombarded with for many years, cast a large shadow over our image. That is why, in terms of image, EXPO is an enormous opportunity for us for millions of people to come here and see for themselves the essence of our spirit, character and our values," Djuric said on Prva TV.

Speaking about opening Cluster 3 in Serbia's EU accession talks, he said it was an "administrative and bureaucratic whole that should be processed by the system as one of the steps towards the EU" and added that he believed Serbia was doing better than some other EU candidate countries.

"Serbia is the only EU candidate country that has an investment-grade credit rating. If we look at the strength of our GDP, our economy, the quality of our infrastructure, our level of education, we are a country that is ahead of many countries that are nominal front-runners on the path to that membership. By all criteria, Serbia should be the focus of (EU) enlargement," Djuric said.