Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic

03/20/2023 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/21/2023 01:38

Mission to Belgrade of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani

The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, will be in Belgrade on 21 March to chair the first Italian-Serbian "Business & Science Forum" together with the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.

At the centre of the proceedings will be the opportunities for strengthening economic, commercial, and scientific cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the sectors of innovation, green and energy transition, infrastructure, and agritech. The event will be attended by more than 150 Italian and an equal number of Serbian companies, with about 400 B2B meetings. The Serbian Ministers of Energy, Environmental Protection, Agriculture and Infrastructure will also participate.

The economic partnership between the two countries will also be strengthened through the signing of a series of bilateral agreements in the sectors of infrastructure, innovation, film co-production, agriculture, and finance. To seal the renewed impetus in Italian-Serbian cooperation, Minister Tajani and his counterpart Ivica Dačić will sign a Declaration for the establishment of a Joint Economic Committee.

During the mission, Minister Tajani will also hold bilateral talks with President Vučić and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dačić. Together with his interlocutors, the Minister will discuss the main topics of current international and regional politics, with a particular focus on the migration dossier, the stabilisation of the Western Balkans and the European integration process in the region.

The mission, which follows Minister Tajani's last visit to Belgrade on 22 November, is the first operational follow-up to the national conference in Trieste on 24 January, in line with the strategy of relaunching Italian action in the Western Balkans.