The United States of America and Serbia will commence a strategic dialogue, which should be officially announced this weekend, during the visit of the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, Richard Verma, to Belgrade, Euronews Srbija learns from diplomacy sources.
The strategic dialogue will encompass several key areas, including economy, trade and investments, energy, the living environment, technology, media, as well as regional and European political issues.
That form of bilateral cooperation shows how much importance the USA places on a country. Richard Verma is the highest American official to come to Serbia in the past years. On this occasion, Euronews Srbija spoke to Vuk Velebit, the executive director at the Pupin Initiative, who said that it was big news for Serbia and the Serbian-American relations. Explaining what this strategic dialogue means, Velebit says that it is a diplomatic means that America has in its exterior policy, where, recognizing states, partners and allies, it establishes a strategic dialogue.
– Translated into Serbian, that’s something that Serbia has in its relations with Beijing, Moscow and some other partners. It’s a strategic partnership in a Serbian context and that features several important elements. First, it’s the establishment of a framework for the further development of relations and it’s the raising of the relations to a whole new level. So, it’s no longer ad hoc arrivals by officials. It means that the Serbian and the American side will agree about the fields on which to work each year. So, when this strategic dialogue is officially signed this weekend in Belgrade, the Serbian and the American side will agree on the themes to work on in the next period – he said.
Talking about how the election of Donald Trump as president will reflect on the relations of Serbia and the USA, Velebit says that the relations of the two countries were improving during Joe Biden’s administration as well and that it was a continuity from Trump’s previous administration. As he adds, he sees no reason why the relations of Serbia and America wouldn’t continue to improve after January 20.
– One of the things we proposed within our proposition of the strategic dialogue is a high-level visit, that is, the arrival of the American president to Belgrade. The last time this happened was when the recently deceased Jimmy Carter visited here in 1980 and we truly believe that the arrival of Donald Trump to Belgrade, so to say, would confirm the improving relations and positive signals from Belgrade, from Washington, when it comes to the deepening of the relations. I have to say, as somebody who spends a lot of time in Washington, that Serbia is seen more positively nowadays, that Serbia is no longer that “troublemaker”, as Americans like to say, but a reliable partner, and I believe that it is very good for the international position of Serbia – Velebit pointed out.
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