S. DIMAS: It is a great pleasure to welcome the Foreign Minister of our friend Serbia today, and he is the first Foreign Minister I have received in Athens. I would like to stress once again the bonds of friendship and solidarity between the Greek and Serbian peoples.
I would also like to assure my Serbian counterpart that we are closely monitoring the Serbian people’s efforts toward accession to the European Union; efforts that have produced significant results and progress. And of course Greece, in continuing implementation of its longstanding policy, will support Serbia’s European course.
It is of major importance that the Greek-Serbian Cooperation Committee was set up recently, meeting for the first time a few days ago, on 25 November. This Committee will help greatly with promoting our bilateral relations as well as Serbia’s accession course.
Finally, I would like to say with regard to the relevant Belgrade-Pristina process, under the auspices of the European Union, that we support this process. Important progress has been made, and we believe that further steps will follow in this direction.
Finally, regarding the incidents in northern Kosovo, we believe that these kinds of attacks should be discouraged, and I am sure that the Serbian government is working in that direction.
Again, I am very pleased you are visiting us, and I wish you and the Serbian people every success.
V. JEREMIC: Thank you, Mr. Minister. I would like to express my great satisfaction at being here in Athens. I am greatly honoured to be the first Foreign Minister to visit you here at the Greek Foreign Ministry. This is proof of the close, friendly relations between the two countries. There are no differences of opinion when it comes to Greek-Serbian relations and relations in our wider region and Europe. This path was of course laid down deep in the past, and we are still continuing in the same direction.
The current state of affairs is not the first crisis suffered by the Balkans, and it certainly won’t be the last. But all the crises have had one thing in common: Greece and Serbia were always on the same side.
We are at a pivotal point where major decisions are going to be taken for Europe in general. These decisions concern the shape Europe may take in the decades to come. But I am dismayed to observe that the issue of EU enlargement is not on the table of the EU heads of state. But when it comes to the friends of Greece, the colleagues here, I want once again to express my gratitude for your unswerving support in this direction.
We will certainly do everything in our power to achieve this. I believe that the European process will be among the principal issues between the two countries and will be one of the continuities in the development of our relations.
I hope that the pre-accession process will continue for the countries of the Balkans. Unfortunately, however, this is not currently the case. But my country, Serbia, is certainly dedicated to peace, to the continuation of our efforts on the path towards the European Union.
Once again, I would like to thank the Greek government for its hospitality, and particularly, and personally, the Minister for the warm welcome.
December 2, 2011