NEW YORK, September 24. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has awarded Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya with the Order of the Serbian Flag, 1st class, a TASS correspondent reported.

The ceremony was held at Serbia's permanent mission to the UN in New York. In addition, Vucic also awarded the Order of the Serbian Flag, 2nd class, to the deputy heads of the Russian mission: Maria Zabolotskaya and Anna Yevstigneeva. When presenting the orders, the Serbian leader asked to depart from the protocol and reading out the formal text on the occasion of the award in English.

"I hope that we will be able to accelerate and increase cooperation between our peoples and our states to a level that will satisfy us all," Vucic said.

Nebenzya, in turn, pointed out that the two countries are bound by centuries-old ties of "friendship and brotherhood." "We see the world through the same prism, stand for the same values and principles," the Russian diplomat said at the award ceremony. "We will stand by Serbia in its just struggle for the preservation of the Serbian people," he emphasized.