The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia firmly believes that activities which strengthen international cooperation include all types of parliamentary activity – both in the internal sphere (relationship with the public, parliament’s representative function, keeping the public informed about the importance of cooperation within international law) and in the sphere of parliamentary diplomacy, in the bilateral and multilateral sphere, via regional initiatives and international organisations.

This is particularly visible and significant in the current NARS convocation, where the NARS has shown initiative to develop parliamentary diplomacy which is not only accepted by a large number of the world’s parliaments, but has also given its first results in various areas of activity and life in Serbia.

This is evidenced in the fact that the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic has, since the beginning of her term of office, received more than 70 delegations and the same number of ambassadors, and represented the Serbian Parliament in over 25 countries around the world. The National Assembly has been visited by numerous state presidents such as the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev (who also addressed the NARS deputies), Czech President Vaclav Klaus, President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers, Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic, as well as many foreign ministers (Portugal, Cyprus, Slovakia, Mali …), representatives of the EU, UN and many international organisation.

Parliamentary cooperation was improved by the meetings of the Serbian National Assembly Speaker with the parliament speakers of Spain, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal, Macedonia, Norway, the Republic of Srpska, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, following the extremely successful visit of the delegation of China’s National People’s Congress headed by Chairman Wu Bangguo, we are welcoming the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament’s House of Commons Peter Milliken.

Parliamentary activity shall continue in the near future. On Monday, 19 July 2010, the Speaker shall travel to Geneva to take part in the Third World Conference of Parliament Speakers, and afterwards, in September, the NARS Speaker is to visit the Slovenian Parliament, Austrian Parliament and German Bundestag.