Serbian president on two-day visit to Turkey

Source: Beta, Tanjug

BELGRADE, ANKARA -- Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić is on Monday starting his two-day visit to Turkey, where he will be meeting with the country's top officials.

(Beta/AP)

Nikolić has conferred with his counterpart Abdullah Gul, and will meet with Turkey's parliament speaker, Cemil Cicek, it has been announced.
He will also meet with the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, and leading members of the Turkish business community.

The president is accompanied by Serbian Minister of Sports and Youth Alisa Marić and Assistant Foreign Minister Goran Aleksić, as well as representatives of Serbia's businesses.

Nikolić's foreign policy adviser Marko Đurić told Tanjug that the visit meant that intensive foreign policy activities were resuming, while the focus will be on the economic cooperation.

The Serbian delegation, according to this official, expects concrete results in that area. However, the trip will also be a chance to stress that "political relations must closely follow the economic ones and that we expect Turkey to take into account our interests when it comes to Kosovo and Metohija," said Đurić.

Nikolić was already in Turkey at the start of his mandate last summer when he and Gul co-presided over a summit of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. The two presidents also met for a bilateral meeting.