BELGRADE, June 12, /ITAR-TASS/. Serbian and Belarusian Presidents Tomislav Nikolic and Alexander Lukashenko held talks behind closed doors and also in enlarged format with the countries’ delegations on Thursday, focusing on Belarus and Serbia’s cooperation in trade and economy.
After the talks, the heads of state put their signatures under a joint agreement that outlines the growth of industrial cooperation and regional interaction as a top priority for their partnership , including joint enterprises and projects.
At the same time, Belarus and Serbia voiced aspiration to activate their interaction in transport, energy, machine engineering, agriculture and food and timber industries as well.
Lukashenko said that a total of eight international contracts were adopted which “will enhance the development of bilateral cooperation.”
Serbia and Belarus have reached 200 million U.S. dollars in volume of trade year on year and the 500-million trade is the target, he said.
“We are ready to keep on developing fraternal relations with Serbia as the Serbians will always be brothers for us and Belarus will stand shoulder to shoulder with Serbia in all difficult situations,” the Belarus president said.
Nikolic named Lukashenko “Serbia’s great friend” and “my own personal friend” noting that Minsk was among the first to come to help if Belgrade ran into trouble.
“Nothing divides our peoples,” he said.
In the run-up to Serbia’s would-be presidency in the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2015, the two men agreed to enlarge communication within its framework in order to secure an equal and balanced dialogue,” the document says.
In their joint statement, Serbia and Belarus highlighted the UN’s central part in preservation of the world’s peace and security, in counteracting modern challenges and threats as well as in peaceful settlement of international conflicts.