site.btaBulgarian President Radev Pays Official Visit to Serbia

Belgrade, June 21 (BTA Special Correspondent Lora Metanova) -  Bulgarian President Rumen Radev arrived on a two-day official visit to Serbia on Thursday at the invitation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

"The real European integration of the countries of our region passes through reconciling with the past, putting hate speech behind us, establishing good-neighbour relations, and respecting minority rights," Radev told a joint news conference with Vucic. "The historical reconciliation on which united Europe was
 founded must find its place in the Balkans, too, and we must all work together for this," the Bulgarian head of State stressed.

Among other things, the two Presidents discussed Serbia's future as a European perspective. "Our goal is to work together for the Balkans' European future because this is the only way in which we can guarantee security, stability and prosperity for the region," the guest commented. "Serbia has its timeframe," he
 noted, arguing that 2025 is "an ambitious but achievable target date and, certainly, it requires mobilization for resolute reforms."

Radev noted that hate speech and the language of disunity must give way to cooperation and friendly relations. "This is the way to show that we have learnt the lessons of the past and can make progress together towards our common European future," the Bulgarian leader commented.

"We can say today that Bulgarian-Serbian relations are at that level, that positive processes dominate, and we are decided to work together to make this irreversible," he added.

Radev recalled that, together with President Vucic, he will meet the Bulgarian minority in Southeastern Serbia on Friday. "This is the first such joint meeting, and it is indeed a landmark event," he said. "We expect that this national minority of ours will feel stronger support from the Serbian State, will feel sooner in its everyday life the positive changes in Serbian legislation concerning national minorities," the head of State added.

In his words, the programme that Vucic proposed is entirely in a spirit of historical reconciliation and understanding. "Tomorrow, we will lay together wreaths at the monument on Neshkov Vruh and will break ground for a monument to Sts Cyril and Methodius," Radev said. He was referring to an ossuary of  Bulgarian and Serbian soldiers killed in a battle during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War near Dimitrovgrad (Caribrod), Serbia, and to the inventors of the Slav alphabet.

The Bulgarian President noted that two-way trade grew substantially last year, topping 1,000 million euro, tourist exchanges have increased, and the Sofia-Nis motorway, the gas interconnector between the two countries and rail links are making progress as major infrastructure connectivity projects. Radev said that Vucic and he are planning to propose to their countries' governments to set up one more border crossing
between Bulgaria and Serbia.

Replying to a question, Radev said he expects the Bulgarian section of the Sofia-Nis motorway to be ready by 2022 and that feasibility studies for the interconnector are in progress.

"We have constructive discussions on invigorating river transport and tourism within the scope of the Danube Strategy and make ampler use of the cross-border cooperation mechanisms, as well as on improving air transport conditions and procedures," he pointed out. Radev said that Bulgaria and Romania, in their capacity as partners in their common functional airspace block, have formally invited Serbia to join that block.

Vucic said that Bulgarian-Serbian relations are improving by the year. "We discussed ways of overcoming the conflicts of the past, which is important not only for the past but for our future, too. The time has come to open a new page for the future and focus on friendship," the Serbian leader pointed out.

"We also talked about the Bulgarian minority in Serbia, respecting the demands of the Bulgarian side, of the Bulgarians who live here," he commented, noting the readiness to finance Bulgarian-language media in Serbia and the cultural infrastructure.

The subject of Kosovo was also on the two Presidents' agenda. "Bulgaria recognizes independent Kosovo, but the positions of Serbia must be heard. We are grateful for the respect shown to us," Vucic commented.

Radev said that there is no alternative to dialogue on Kosovo and that the situation must be settled in a way that does not impede Serbia's European integration. "But we must be careful, Serbia's arguments have to be analyzed and assessed very carefully because, if they are ignored, we will get a momentary solution but it will be hardly stable, rational and lasting in time," the Bulgarian President noted.

He is also scheduled to confer with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and with and National Assembly President Maja Gojkovic.