Foreign Ministers of Serbia and Russian Federation Vuk Jeremic and Sergey Lavrov respectively said yesterday in Belgrade that the relations between the two countries are friendly, close and on the rise, which will be confirmed by the agreement on strategic partnership between Serbia and Russia that will be signed soon.
Jeremic and Lavrov said at a joint press conference at the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that this agreement will be signed during the forthcoming visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic to Russia.
Jeremic stressed that relations between Serbia and Russia are comprehensive, meaningful, based on mutual friendship and unambiguous support that is not conditioned by anything.
He said that today’s meeting dealt, among other things, with economic cooperation, especially in the field of energy.
The focus was on the Southern Stream project, as well as new projects in the field of pharmacy and infrastructure, which will be discussed in more detail by Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the end of this year, Jeremic explained.
Lavrov said that relations between Serbia and Russia are on the rise and that one of the topics of today’s meeting were economic issues that were discussed during last month’s visit of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Belgrade.
Jeremic and Lavrov agreed that strengthening of relations between Serbia and Russia cannot harm Serbia’s European integration process.
Jeremic said that within next few days Belgrade will submit to the UN Security Council a proposal on how a credible international investigation in human organ trafficking in Kosovo could look like, and Lavrov pointed out that Russia will fully support Belgrade’s initiative.
The Serbian Foreign Minister expressed his hope that members of the UN Security Council will discuss this proposal of Serbia, adding that this would be a good opportunity to show who backs the establishment of the whole truth about the trade in human organs in Kosovo.
The whole truth can be established only through a serious investigation that has a binding mandate for all, he pointed out and noted that only the UN Security Council can give such a mandate.
He said that a credible international investigation under the UN auspices is necessary because of the territorial jurisdiction of the bodies that will carry out the investigation, but also because all war crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia have been investigated with the mandate of the UN Security Council.
If that does not happen in this case as well, it will be hard to resist the impression that double standards are used, the Minister warned.
Lavrov underlined that Russia fully supports Belgrade’s struggle to reach justice. An unbiased investigation of allegations from Dick Marty’s report must be carried out and we fully support Serbia on this, Lavrov said.
Less serious crimes have been investigated by international bodies, he recalled and stressed that there must not be double standards on this issue.
Lavrov reiterated that Russia supports Serbia in the case of Kosovo-Metohija, taking the Resolution 1244 as a basis for its position, but also the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The importance of the role of the UN mission in Kosovo must not be downplayed either, he said.
Speaking about culture, the ministers announced that the Days of Serbian culture in Russia will be held in Moscow and that Russia will assist in the painting of Saint Sava Temple.
Jeremic and Lavrov unveiled a memorial plaque dedicated to Russian architect Nikolai Krasnov. The plaque has been placed on the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s building, which was designed by Krasnov and erected in 1929.
Jeremic recalled that Krasnov was one of the tens of thousands of Russians who settled in Serbia early in the 20th century and gave a huge contribution to the Serbian society.
Source balkans.com
