National Assembly Speaker Ivica Dacic began his official visit to the Republic of Austria today with a meeting with his former colleague, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg.
The officials agreed that the bilateral relations between Serbia and Austria are good and their further development should be continued across the board.
In the course of the meeting, they discussed the situation in the region, European integration and the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
National Assembly Speaker Ivica Dacic emphasised Serbia's readiness to continue the dialogue and find a compromise solution, at the same time expressing concern that no such type of readiness exists in Pristina.
Speaking about the European integration of the region, Minister Schallenberg said that last year was lost for the Western Balkans, partly because of the coronavirus, adding that these processes should be intensified in the coming period.
The officials also talked about the vaccination process, fight against the coronavirus, normalisation of life and the revival of the economy.
Minister Schallenberg announced that Austria is preparing a "refocusing program" for the autumn, which includes economic initiatives that should connect interested companies and individual countries, regions and cities. He said that Serbia is an important economic partner and will as such certainly be a part of this program.
The National Assembly Speaker reminded his host that the trade exchange between Serbia and Austria recorded a drop of 15% last year and agreed that additional efforts should be made to return it to regular levels in the coming period and further improve it.
The National Assembly Speaker asked Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg to advocate reaching an agreement on green certificates as soon as possible, i.e. normalisation of travel between Serbia and Austria.
The National Assembly Speaker will continue his visit to Vienna tomorrow with meetings with the President of the Federal Council Christian Buchmann and the President of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka.
The visit will end with a meeting with Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
