Djuric: Serbia-US cooperation supported by both countries

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Thursday Serbia-US strategic dialogue, to be launched soon, would take the relations between the two countries to a new level, and added that he hoped an opportunity would arise for Serbia to host US President Donald Trump in Belgrade.

"It is no secret that people in Serbia sympathised with Trump as president, but also before that," Djuric said at a Days of America conference, hosted in the Serbian parliament building by the Serbian-American Friendship Congress.

Djuric said Serbia-US strategic dialogue should be viewed in a bilateral context, as well as in a broader, global context, and added that it was comprehensive.

"Strategic dialogue will take our relations to a new level so that we can substantially turn a new page in the relations with a state with which we are connected by a 144-year-long friendship that can greatly contribute to the future," Djuric said.

He said mutual cooperation enjoyed universal political support in both Serbia and the US and added that he had witnessed that during his tenure as Serbia's ambassador to the US.

"Cooperation between Serbia and the US is supported by political and social actors who understand that it is in mutual interest. I share the view that the best times are ahead of us," Djuric said.

He noted that Serbia's GDP had more than doubled in the past ten years and that its IT industry had surpassed the most developed sectors such as the agriculture, showing why the US had become one of Serbia's leading partners in the services sector.

US Charge d'Affaires in Belgrade Alexander Titolo said Trump and his administration were seeking to revive the Serbia-US relationship, expand business ties and establish political dialogue based on joint interests and values.

He said this was a new era of Serbia-US relations, but that it was possible only if there was a commitment to regional stability.

Titolo noted that the two countries should not let their differences keep them from building a future and added that they needed to focus on their historic ties, which he said were more than a hundred years old.