The National Assembly Speaker expressed his belief that during his diplomatic mandate, Ambassador Ferguson will personally contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations between Serbia and the UK, as well as the additional intensification of the already dynamic interparliamentary cooperation. In that regard, Dr Orlic conveyed the National Assembly's interest in furthering its connections with the UK Parliament and the Parliamentary Friendship Group’s active work.

Ambassador Ferguson thanked the National Assembly Speaker for the opportunity to talk, saying that he took office proud of the two countries’ long, common history, with the desire to develop modern and positive relations with the Republic of Serbia. "Serbia is a very important country with the potential to become even more significant and successful than it is now. We want to be part of your progress, to fight together for prosperity and a better future," said the Ambassador. He also stressed that there are many opportunities for strengthening bilateral cooperation, as evidenced by the projects the two countries are successfully implementing together.

Dr Orlic said that the Republic of Serbia continues to advocate for the improvement of economic, investment, infrastructural and any other cooperation with the UK, pointing to the fact that our country has had record results in these areas in previous years. He also stressed that the Republic of Serbia, led by the President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic, continues to pursue the policy of peace and stability and in that sense, the difficult situation in Kosovo-Metohija, created by Albin Kurti’s dangerous moves and his intentions to provoke open conflict, is particularly challenging. "We will, for our part, continue to try to preserve peace - a basic prerequisite for all the other important things we do in Serbia and will continue to do in the future. And today we can proudly talk about the historical changes we have achieved, which everyone notices – the new highways, modern railways, the important infrastructure we are building, and Belgrade, which is rapidly being built and modernised, was included by "Economist" magazine among the five fastest-growing cities," said Dr Orlic. Ambassador Ferguson praised Serbia’s successes, expressing determination to deepen cooperation in numerous areas and saying that the preservation of peace and regional stability is an issue of the utmost importance.