Vucic: Audience with Emperor Naruhito a special honour, important thing for Serbia

TOKYO - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday an audience with Japanese Emperor Naruhito in Tokyo earlier in the day had been a great honour for him and an important thing for Serbia, and noted that every meeting with Naruhito was important.

"I had a morning meeting, an audience with Japanese Emperor Naruhito. That is a special honour and, I would say, an important picture for Serbia. Interestingly, his father and mother paid a visit (to Serbia) as crown prince and princess - not as an imperial couple - in 1976," Vucic told reporters.

He said he had taken the opportunity to ask the emperor to visit Belgrade and Serbia.

"Shinzo Abe's visit to Belgrade and Serbia in 2018 was historic, and people still talk about it. With both collocutors - with His Majesty the Emperor Naruhito and with PM Ishiba - I discussed that and everything that followed, because, after that, we began to advance our relations at an accelerated pace, to perfect them in the legislative and every other sense and get them to a state where both sides would be satisfied," Vucic said.