Vucic: Very successful meetings in Baku, new opportunities for cooperation

BAKU - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday he had had very successful meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and representatives of Azerbaijan's top companies earlier in the day and that new opportunities for cooperation with the country had been opened up.

"Of course, we confirmed our friendship, we have been supporting each other in all international forums for years now, in all international organisations," Vucic told reporters, adding that his discussion with Aliyev had also addressed the geopolitical situation and the Iran conflict.

He said they had also discussed the construction of a gas-fired power plant near Nis and that a framework agreement would be signed soon.

"It will be a huge investment, and the power plant's installed power will be around 500 MW. So, we have agreed on how to use that and what the gas sources are. That is an enormous potential and a huge new capacity for our electric power sector, and it will mean much to us in the era of data centres, but not only because of that. We will have higher electricity consumption also due to electric cars and everything else," Vucic said.

"Numerous companies were here, from companies that are food producers to companies that invest in design and construction of spa and wellness centres and those that are major construction firms. They have major projects in Turkey, Italy, Montenegro and, of course, Uzbekistan, Russia, Kazakhstan and many other Central Asian countries. And we asked them to look at things in Serbia," he said.

Vucic said Serbia had offered the companies to invest in numerous spas that had been neglected for years or even decades.

"We also discussed some other places in eastern Serbia," he said.

"We have major capacities also on Mt Stara planina and in eastern Serbia as a whole. Around the Homolje region, I would say we have completely virgin nature, and something must be done to attract tourists from around the world, from Europe, from Serbia and the region," Vucic added.

He announced that a large Azerbaijani business delegation would come to Serbia soon to discuss "all other matters that do not only have to do with the energy sector."

Vucic: Authorities have demonstrated professionalism in Dedinje shooting case

BAKU - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday Serbian authorities and the police had demonstrated absolute professionalism in the case of a recent shooting in a restaurant in Belgrade's Dedinje district and that former Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic was not suspected of personal involvement in the most serious crime, but of covering it up, and noted that the authorities had reacted swiftly, demonstrating that no one was protected.

Vucic said this in a statement to Serbian reporters in Baku after being asked to comment on a statement by Freedom and Justice Party President Dragan Djilas in which the opposition leader likened Serbia to Colombia.

"The police and the authorities have demonstrated absolute professionalism, respecting the presumption of innocence. No police officers have been suspected of or charged with involvement in murder. No one has been charged with that as yet - I apologise for that," Vucic said.

Milic, who was arrested on Friday, has been placed in detention for up to 30 days on suspicion of committing a series of crimes with the aim of covering up the criminal offence of attempted aggravated murder, committed at the restaurant on May 12, after which a person identified with the initials A N was reported missing on the following day.

Milic appeared in a hearing at the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade on Friday.

He is charged with the crimes of failure to report a criminal offence and failure to report the perpetrator of a criminal offence, as well as with the crime of assisting the perpetrator following the commission of a criminal offence.

Nine other people are also under investigation in the case.

Milic, who served as Belgrade police chief at the time of the commission of the criminal offence, was dismissed from the post on Friday.