Serbian president, French defense minister on EU enlargement and cooperation between their countries

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic mets with French Defense Minister Florence Parly in Belgrade today.

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The meeting was held at 12 noon, in the building of the General Secretariat of the President of the Republic, after which they started to address the public.

"France is not opposed to EU's enlargement and inclusion of the Western Balkans in that union. I also spoke today with President Vucic and my colleague Vulin about military cooperation. We will train soldiers together, the helicopters have already arrived, and we will have joint military exercises. Also, a topic at the meeting was the Mmistral 3 system," Parly stressed.

The Serbian president thanked France for its support and said he trusted Emmanuel Macron.

Vucic told a news conference with French Defense Minister Florence Parly that Serbia is not participating in what is almost an orchestrated campaign against Macron because of some EU decisions, namely the decision not to open EU membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.

 

 

 

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"Prvi put posle 35 godina imamo posetu ministra odbrane Francuske Republike, veliko hvala i uvek ste dobrodošli u Srbiju. Molim vas da prenesete srdačne pozdrave predsedniku @emmanuelmacron. Za nas su Francuzi prijatelji i u budućnost moramo da gledamo zajedničkim i jedinstvenim pogledom. Srbija će da čuva svoju vojnu neutralnost, ali i da razvija sve bolje odnose sa Francuskom. Naša vojno-tehnička i vojno-ekonomska saradnja raste. Hvala na podršci Francuske na evropskom putu Srbije. Živelo prijateljstvo Srbije i Francuske." - Predsednik Vučić nakon sastanka sa ministarkom odbrane Francuske Republike Florans Parli.A post shared by Aleksandar Vučić (@buducnostsrbijeav) on Dec 13, 2019 at 4:26am PST

"We have great trust in Macron, we consider him a sincere friend. I believe that he will take care, first and foremost, of French interests, but also of Serbian ones. People in Serbia trust in France," said Vucic.

The president said that a French defense minister is visiting Belgrade for first time in 35 years.

"I'm very pleased with that and thank you very much. Please convey to President Emmanuel Macron the warmest greetings of the people of Serbia and my personal greetings, I thank him for his visit during the summer and the messages he conveyed to the citizens of Serbia," said Vucic.

Stating that the two countries have good cooperation, Vucic emphasized that Serbia will maintain military neutrality but will be developing ever better relations with France.

He stressed the good cooperation in international missions and that Serbia is ready to participate bilaterally with France in various missions.

"To us the French are friends, we were friends in 1914 and 1918, in the Second World War and in the future we must have a common or almost an equal point of view,"- said Vucic.

He stressed that economic cooperation between the two countries is good and that trade is growing, while France employs more than 11,000 people in Serbia.

(Telegraf.rs)