Today, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Dr Vladimir Orlic met with the Ambassador of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria H.E. Fatah Mahraz to discuss the further improvement of the bilateral relations, which were declared traditionally good and friendly, dating back to the time of the Algerian people's struggle for national liberation. "The sincere friendship between our two nations is evidenced in the fact that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Algeria," said the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.
He thanked Algeria for consistently respecting Serbia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as supporting Serbia's interests in international organisations. He assessed the situation in Kosovo as difficult and dangerous. "People are detained without any evidence, beaten, literally kidnapped and their families have no way of finding out what is happening to them. Serbian areas are invaded with arms and armoured vehicles in flagrant violation of all agreements, announcing that there are long secret lists for arrests. That is why yesterday more than 10,000 Serbs in the town of Rudare expressed their protest completely peacefully, without threatening anyone - they are demanding an end to oppression, respect for human rights that should be guaranteed to every person, and in response they received a threat from Kurti that he would end the peaceful demonstrations at the cost of human lives if need be. The President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic sent a message of support yesterday, and it is a message from all of us: we all stand with our Serbian people," said the National Assembly Speaker, adding that Serbia continues to advocate for consistent respect of international law and UN resolutions, while on the other hand, "those who have objections to anything mentioned, send a message that only respect force and international law does not exist".
Ambassador Mahraz said that support for Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty stems from the principle of respect for and defence of international law.
In the course of the meeting, the officials assessed that the activities of parliamentary friendship groups, working bodies and committees, and especially the continuation of regular exchanges of visits at the highest level would greatly contribute to the cooperation between the two parliaments. In that regard, Dr Orlic informed Ambassador Mahraz that he had renewed his invitation to the Speaker of the People’s National Assembly, H.E. Ibrahim Bouhgali to visit the Republic of Serbia.
Ambassador Mahraz pointed out that Algeria is Serbia's biggest economic partner in Africa and that there is a lot of unused potential for strengthening economic and trade relations between the two countries. Both parties confirmed readiness to improve cooperation in the said areas in the future.
Ambassador Mahraz also spoke about Algeria’s peace efforts in Africa and elsewhere in the world, in order to support justice and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue.
