Djuric: Italy supports Serbia, our friendship is centuries-old

Summarizing the two-day official visit to Italy, Minister Djuric stated that, building on what President Vucic and the Serbian Government had done in recent years, today we were seeing the fruits of cooperation between Serbia and Italy.

"This is a confirmation that Italy supports Serbia on the issue of European integration, demonstrates a high level of understanding for our regional problems, and shows a readiness to engage in resolving them positively, taking Serbian interests into account", Djuric said.

He pointed out that in the past two days in Italy, he had talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, whom he described as having earned immense reputation in EU interactions and as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"I spoke with the chairs of the foreign policy committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, with the Speaker of the Italian Parliament, that is, President of the Chamber of Deputies. We also had a phenomenal forum at the Institute of Foreign Affairs, where we talked about Serbia's strategic priorities and the advantages to be gained by Europe by accepting Serbia into its ranks. Not only what Serbia has to gain, as Serbia is not going to Europe with an outstretched hand, but standing tall, proud and ready to take its equal place in the family of European nations”, Djuric stressed.

The head of Serbian diplomacy pointed out the tragic situation facing the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija.

"I tried to explain the genesis of the problem since the 1990s and the fact that now the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija found themselves in a situation where they have mayors imposed in their communities by Kurti's regime, that Serbs are practically ousted from all institutions, from the police, from the judiciary. For 12 months not a single bag of potato chips, not a single bottle of drink, including Coca-Cola, could enter from central Serbia as a product into Kosovo and Metohija, due to the discriminatory decisions of Kurti's regime. And as a result of the continuous repression, even the Serbian Patriarch was prevented from visiting Serbian holy sites, including the Visoki Decani monastery, which the Italian Carabinieri have been guarding for decades”, Djuric noted.

He added that this led to a wave of Serbian population leaving their homes.

"Today, in Kosovo and Metohija, unfortunately, we have a mirror image of what happened in the 1990s, with Serbs in the role of victims, and the international community must rise up, stop it, prevent it in the same way as in the 1990s, when, often influenced by incorrect information, part of the public supported the other side", Djuric said.  

He reiterated that Serbia and Italy were like one big extended family.

"Both in terms of mentality and culturally, we are only an hour's flight away, but we have intertwined for centuries. Today, the Serbian economy is developing in cooperation with the Italian economy. Italy is the second largest European investor. President Vucic opened the Fiat Grande Panda factory and the Ariston factory in Nis in the past 24 hours alone. This also gives a new impulse to our economy. Just the Fiat Grande Panda will add 0.5 percent to our national GDP. Building on what President Vucic and the government have done in recent years, we are developing a solid political foothold here in Italy in order to ensure that in Europe, both regarding European integration and our regional concerns, we have Italy on our side", Djuric noted, clarifying that it is an old alliance.

"This friendship of ours truly spans centuries and should continue into the future, and Serbia needs to build more and more friendly homes in European capitals", Djuric concluded.