Djuric speaks with US State Department official

BELGRADE - In a phone call with Louis Bono from the US State Department Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Serbian FM Marko Djuric on Wednesday reiterated Serbia's firm resolve to cooperate with the new US administration to strengthen the political, economic and other aspects of bilateral relations as well as to become a key US partner in Europe.

Djuric said he was pleased with the contemporary bilateral relations, which recently culminated with the initiation of strategic dialogue as an additional platform for cooperation between the two countries in many areas, the Serbian MFA said in a statement.

"With a mutually expressed readiness for strategic discussions on further advancement of our relations, we have laid the foundation for a new chapter in our long shared history," Djuric said.

Informing Bono of the situation in the Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija, Djuric especially stressed the constant provocations and violations of the fundamental human rights of the Serbs and other non-Albanians, noting that, amid heightened tensions, Belgrade expected international partners to ensure the rights and the security of the Serbs and support the implementation of all agreements reached in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue.

Speaking about increasingly intensive economic relations, Djuric underscored that the US was a very important economic partner and a leading foreign investor in Serbia, and that the presence of a large number of US companies that were opening research and development centres besides operating successfully confirmed that the business environment in Serbia was a positive one.