Orlic: We appreciate Romania's principled stance on respect of Serbia's sovereignty

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic met on Monday with Romanian Chamber of Deputies Speaker Alfred Simonis, who is in Serbia on what is his first official trip abroad since he took office.

Orlic noted that Serbia especially appreciated Romania's principled, firm and international law-based stance on respect of Serbia's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and added that Serbia shared the same values and principles without exception.

He informed Simonis of the extremely difficult situation of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija.

"Our clear stance is expressed by the words of the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic - that Serbia is committed to preserving peace and stability and that it knows its obligations but that it will never do anything that is contrary to its constitution. Serbia has always acted seriously and responsibly, but we also expect others to meet their own obligations, which they should have done as many as 11 years ago," Orlic said.

He thanked Romania for its continued support to Serbia in the EU integration process and noted that EU membership was Serbia's strategic commitment.

Highlighting the traditional friendship and close ties between the two countries and between Serbs and Romanians, Orlic said he was confident the good political relations would result in further strengthening of cooperation in the economy, infrastructure, energy and all other fields of mutual interest and added that the Serbian parliament stood ready to make a full contribution to that, an official statement said.

Simonis agreed Serbia and Romania maintained traditionally friendly and close ties and reiterated that Romania supported the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia and would always back Serbia's EU integration, and added that Romania's experience from that path could be greatly beneficial to Serbia.

He expressed a readiness for continued cooperation in all fields of mutual interest, as well as for stepping it up.

Orlic and Simonis agreed that strengthening of bilateral economic relations needed to be continued and that there was space to further boost bilateral trade, as well as that continuing the work on joint infrastructure projects such as construction of a Pancevo-Timisoara motorway, on strengthening the energy infrastructure and on all other planned activities was extremely important.