Djuric: Regional cooperation in W Balkans has become national security issue

ISTANBUL - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Friday regional cooperation in the Western Balkans had become a national security issue amid global turmoil and changes to the nature of the world order.

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul after the second meeting of the Balkan Peace Platform, Djuric said Serbia welcomed the platform also because the issue of regional cooperation had become a pressing one.

"Our immediate neighbours are countries and territories on which both the pace and dynamics of our economic growth depends, as does free movement of people of our ethnicities - Serbs and all others living in Serbia and the region. We must be intelligent and wise and create an environment and an atmosphere of trust to avoid, in this global and geopolitical storm, getting dragged into a new cycle of bad relations, let alone something that is even more difficult and even worse," Djuric said.

During the visit to Istanbul, Djuric also had a tete-a-tete meeting with Turkish FM Hakan Fidan to discuss ways Serbia and Turkey can help to stabilise the situation and to maintain stability in the region.

"We also discussed various sensitive topics that are to be discussed behind closed doors, to put it that way, but, generally, our goal is definitely to strengthen trust and advance cooperation, especially in the economic sphere," Djuric added.

He said the topics in Istanbul had also included US President Donald Trump's peace initiative and the Board of Peace, expectations regarding the Ukraine conflict and potential implications of its conclusion, as well as the situation in the Middle East.

Djuric said Serbia's positions were very clear and based on international law and the country's national interests, as well as on a desire to bolster regional cooperation as one of the key preconditions for national priorities - preservation of peace and stability and further economic growth and development of the country.

"But I also spoke very sincerely about my views on the dynamics of Serbia's EU integration, and I will discuss that very sincerely also with the European Parliament members who have decided to visit our country," Djuric said.

Djuric: We take every opportunity to point out need to protect Kosovo-Metohija Serbs

ISTANBUL - Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Friday that, at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Istanbul, he had taken the opportunity to point out a need to protect the fundamental human rights of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

"Of course that was discussed at our bilateral meeting. I will reiterate what President Vucic has defined as one of the guidelines of our overall state policy. That is preservation of peace and stability but, of course, we take every opportunity to point out the need to protect the fundamental human rights of our people," Djuric told reporters after the meeting.

After the discussion with Fidan, Djuric attended the second Balkan Peace Platform meeting alongside his Western Balkan counterparts.