BELGRADE, September 17 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov said on Wednesday that 2014 had been positive for Russian-Serbian relations.

“Trade turnover is growing,” Meshkov said, adding the figure had increased by 17% in the first six months of 2014 over the same period in 2013.

“Political cooperation is also on the rise,” Meshkov went on to say.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic paid a visit to Moscow this year. The two countries have prepared a package of bilateral agreements to be signed before year’s end.

“We actively cooperate in international arena,” the Russian diplomat said adding that Serbia would take over the OSCE rotating chairmanship in 2015.

“We discussed how to make Europe more stable, overcome the current crisis and how to move forward,” Meshkov said commenting on his meeting with the Serbian president and foreign minister on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Russian diplomat had a closed door meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

Vucic said he was satisfied with a good level of relations existing between Serbia and Russia as well as by frequent meetings and contacts held by the two countries’ leaders and officials, the Serbian government’s press service reported after the meeting.

The Serbian prime minister expressed concern with the conflict in eastern Ukraine, adding Serbia supported a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis.

Meshkov, in turn, “thanked Serbia for its support and understanding of a situation in which Russia has found itself in the context of the Ukraine crisis,” the Serbian government’s press service went on to say.

It also quoted Meshkov as saying that Russia was ready to strengthen cooperation with Serbia in all fields and that Moscow respected the Serbian government’s independent and responsible foreign policy stance.

Meshkov is staying in Belgrade to attend an international scientific and public conference timed to coincide with the centenary anniversary of WWI.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin have sent greetings to the two-day conference titled “The Great War and the Start of New World: Urgent Agenda for Humanity.”

The forum had been organized by the Russian Center of National Glory; the St. Andrew the First Called Foundation; as well as the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals public organization. The gathering is being attended by Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin; the former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus; leading historians, politicians and public figures from Russia, Serbia and other European countries.

The conference is going to analyze the lessons of WWI not only in terms of historical transformations but also in terms of values and ideology and trace down the influence of past historical events on the modern system of international relations.

On the second day, on Thursday, the delegates will unveil a memorial sign in honor of Russian and Serbian warriors who died at the boundary of the Kalemegdan fortress in Belgrade during WWI. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic will attend the opening ceremony.

Besides, the delegates will also lay wreaths at a memorial to children who were killed during NATO bombardments of Serbia in 1999. It will be followed by commemoration for Russian and Serbian soldiers and officers who fell during WWI at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Archangel Michael in Belgrade.

Later on Thursday, the participants in the conference will be present at a concert devoted to the memory of those who gave their lives for Serbia’s liberation during WWI.