Relations between Serbia and China are on the best level: ambassador

Milan Bacevic, Serbian ambassador to China, says that at this moment Serbia and China are having the best overall relations in their history. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Milan Bacevic, Serbian ambassador to China, accepts China Daily's interview ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia.

Xi will pay state visits to Serbia, Poland and Uzbekistan from June 17 to 22.

Q: Will the two countries sign any agreements concerning China-Serbia cooperation during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia? Could you please tell us more details about his visit?

A: At the occasion of the visit of the President of the People's Republic of China H.E. Xi Jinping we expect to sign more than 15 important agreements in different fields, such as framework agreements and MOUs on the establishment of a Center for Cooperation in Transport and Infrastructure between China and Central and Eastern European Countries, development of the cooperation in the field of production capacities, strengthening the development of Information Silk Road for Information Connectivity, etc.

Among them, by far the most important is joint statement on further strengthening of strategic partnership that will be signed by the two presidents. This strategic document will reconfirm the continuing development of the excellent bilateral relations between our countries and define the direction and scope of future activities and cooperation.

The visit of the Chinese President to Serbia is of great importance to my country, since Serbia and China are linked with traditional friendly relations, and have been strategic partners since 2009. I think that at this moment Serbia and China are having the best overall relations in their history, and we consider President Xi Jinping's visit to Serbia as a crowning of the relations between the two countries.

Both sides have been working on the best possible organization and preparing for this highest level visit to Serbia, but I think that it would be much better to talk about the visit, it's results and concrete arrangements after the visit.

Q: How do you evaluate the current relationship between China and Serbia? What are your expectations on future development of bilateral ties?

A: As I have already said, relations between Serbia and China are on the best level since the two countries established diplomatic relations, and a historic visit of President Xi Jinping to Serbia is a crowning of overall relations between the two countries.

Serbia was a first country in the Central and East Europe to establish strategic partnership relations with China in 2009. The relations between the two countries are marked with high level of mutual understanding, support, and respect, with no open issue in its cooperation.

This is an excellent basis for further development of economic relations between the two countries. Having thаt in mind we can only expect further enhancement of overall relations between Serbia and China. The two countries also have good cooperation in the field of culture, education, science and technology, sports and people-to-people contact. However, I must say that economic relations are not on the same-highest level as political cooperation, there are many potentials for cooperation in this field.