At the sitting held on 5 December, the Foreign Affairs Committee considered the Foreign Affairs Bill in detail. On this occasion several amendments proposed by the Committee itself were adopted, as well as two amendments by members of parliament accepted by the Government. The Committee sitting was chaired by Dr Dragoljub Micunovic.

The Committee proposed that a new chapter be entered in the Bill on the cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly, so as to coordinate the increasingly intensive parliamentary diplomacy with the Government’s diplomatic activities. With this in mind, it was proposed that future ambassadors conduct a briefing at the authorised committee before being posted to a diplomatic duty. Afterwards, the Committee Chairman would inform the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the conducted briefing.

The Ministry will be obligated to inform the National Assembly on the most important foreign policy activities and other relevant issues by forwarding pertinent information, and the Minister will submit an Activity Report at least twice a year.

One of the Committee amendments specifies the duties of diplomatic-consular representations during bilateral visits of delegations and National Assembly deputies abroad.

The amendment specifying that the condition for gaining the title of ambassador at the Ministry is serving for at least two years as head of a standing diplomatic mission with the title of ambassador, was also accepted.

The Committee determined the position of Deputy Friendship Groups for the regions of Asia and the Pacific, Africa, the Near East, Latin American and Scandinavian Countries, and several reports on realised parliamentary cooperation were adopted.