Meeting between the Secretary General of the Farnesina, Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Rome, Goran Aleksić.

Today, the Secretary General of the Farnesina, Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi, met with the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia in Rome, Goran Aleksić.

The Secretary General expressed his satisfaction over the close bilateral relations between Italy and Serbia, as confirmed by Minister Di Maio's visit to Belgrade on 22 June 2022. During their discussion, Ambassador Sequi and Ambassador Aleksić examined the main issues on the bilateral agenda, Serbia's prospects for European accession and the situation in the Balkans.

Ambassador Sequi reaffirmed Italy's firm support for Serbia's EU accession prospects and underscored the importance of Belgrade's alignment with the positions expressed by the EU in multilateral fora on Russia's aggression against Ukraine. At bilateral level, Ambassadors Sequi and Aleksić agreed on reinforcing cooperation in the field of infrastructure, the ecological transition and technological innovation, and expressed the hope that the 4^th meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Italy, Serbia and Albania might be scheduled before the end of the year.

The talks also included an in-depth discussion on the situation in the Western Balkans, with a special focus on Bosnia-Herzegovina and on the EU-facilitated Dialogue for the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina. On this last point, Ambassador Sequi welcomed with satisfaction the agreement reached by Belgrade and Pristina on 21 June on the issue of energy, reaffirming the centrality of Serbia's and Kosovo's accession negotiations in Brussels.

Ambassadors Sequi and Aleksić reaffirmed the excellent state of bilateral relations and agreed on the importance of further strengthening the dialogue on regional and global issues.