They stressed that the recent visit of the Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic to Moscow marks an important point in the development of relations between the two states. The parliamentarians emphasised the importance of Serbia’s being given the status of observer in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). The development of cooperation between Serbia and CSTO plays a very important role in strengthening security and facing modern challenges and threats.
Considering the situation in the Balkan region, the officials underlined the favourable tendencies in the development of multilateral regional cooperation. From the perspective of parliamentary diplomacy the idea of interparliamentary dialogue in the Balkans which would be open for Balkan, Russian and European partners, as well as other interested parties, offers considerable potential. The multilateral dialogue could tackle current economic, political, regional and general-European security, humanitarian and cultural, expert and scientific issues, information cooperation and many other important aspects.
The MPs stressed that an interparliamentary dialogue in the Balkans can contribute to the strengthening of relations among the territories included in the European and Euro-Asian integration processes and should under no circumstances be considered an attempt to create a counterbalance to any superstate-like entity.
The Serbian side underlined that, at present, in the Balkans, the number of factors contributing to the strengthening of regional cooperation, significantly outweighs the existing disagreements. Regionalisation of Europe is also an important example contributing to the development of Balkan ties.
The Russian parliamentarians noted that a dialogue of this kind could play an important role in the development of economic cooperation and contribute to the integration of the interests of Russia, the Balkan countries and EU partners, for example in the energy sector. The infrastructural projects Russia is pursuing in the Balkan region and direct investments by Russian companies could also be an integrating factor.
The MPs underlined that the Balkan region has already shown interest in multilateral interparliamentary dialogue, making it a direction to be pursued.
The delegation of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee also met with the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, V.G. Titov, as well as the Russian State Duma MPs, members of the friendship group with Serbia. Today, on 17 April, the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the State Duma International Affairs Committee will hold a joint sitting.