Ambassador Aleksic at the handover ceremony of treaties from the collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Bilateral agreements and multilateral conventions from the late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, signed by the Republic of Serbia and its legal predecessors, were handed over on this occasion.

The collection of treaties comprises over 12,000 international agreements, while the process of revitalization and digitization included more than 2,000 pages of the 65 oldest treaties.

Pursuant to the Law on the Conclusion and Execution of Treaties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for the preservation and filing and recording of treaties and, in 2019, it launched an initiative for the conservation and digitization of a part of its Collection of Treaties.

The cooperation agreement with the National Library of Serbia was signed the same year, and this institution’s restoration, conservation and digitization experts then proceeded to apply the aforementioned procedures.

The physically damaged bilateral agreements with European countries, the USA, the USSR, Asian, African and South American countries, as well as multilateral conventions and accompanying documents were thoroughly repaired, cleaned, pressed and bound, and then scanned in high resolution with the aim of forming a digital collection of international agreements.

By taking over the aforementioned original and digitized materials from the National Library of Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will ensure their proper and permanent preservation, as well as their availability to professionals and the general public interested in the history of the foreign policy of Serbia.