UAE's Bin Zayed visits Serbia, meets with Vucic: "Our friendship is extremely strong even when times are hard"

Photo: Tanjug/Rade Prelic

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic met on Monday with President of the United Arab Emirates Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A formal ceremony was organized for the UAE leader in front of the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade, where he was welcomed by Vucic.

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A plenary meeting between the two delegations and a face-to-face conversation between Vucic and Bin Zayed followed.

This trip to Serbia is Sheikh bin Zayed's first working visit to our country since he became the president of the Emirates back in May.

From 2012 until now, President Vucic and Sheikh Bin Zayed have had more than 20 meetings, and the last time they met was in September in Abu Dhabi.

That visit to the United Arab Emirates was the first official trip abroad of President Vucic in his second presidential term, and ten agreements were signed between the two countries.

The most important concerns Serbia receiving financial support from the UAE, a loan of one billion dollars at a favorable interest rate of 3 percent.

Agreements on strategic partnership between the two countries were also signed, as well as documents on cooperation in the fields of justice, culture, cyber security, combating human trafficking, and cooperation of diplomatic academies.

In a time of a severe global crisis, this visit was very significant for Serbia, because the UAE is the seventh most oil-rich country in the world, i.e., it owns almost 6 percent of the world's oil reserves.

"Our friendship is extremely strong and whenever things get hard, we can rely on the Emirates, which has been proven countless times so far, when our friends helped us even in the most difficult moments," President Vucic said at the time.

The Emirates helped Serbia several times: in 2014 they sent aid after the country was hit by catastrophic floods, and on several occasions they also sent significant medical aid to help deal more efficiently with the coronavirus pandemic.

Otherwise, Serbia and the UAE have important joint projects, and the one that stands out is Belgrade Waterfront - the most important construction project anywhere between Vienna and Istanbul.

Then, there are investments in Serbia's national carrier Air Serbia, investment by Al Dahra, an Abu Dhabi-based international corporation specializing in agricultural buisness, the construction of the largest wind farm in Serbia financed by UAE's sovereign fund Mubadala, the construction of a hotel on Mt. Kopaonik, the joint construction of a Covid vaccine factory, the opening of Mirabank.

There are also other numerous other projects that are now in the implementation phase.

Global media reports rank Sheikh Bin Zayed among the powerful men in the world, thanks to his wise policies, and the energy potential at his disposal.

Russian press say that from Belgrade, the UAE president will travel to Moscow where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Telegraf.rs)