The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, today met with Aleksandar Vucic, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, during his working visit to the Republic of Serbia, within the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the settlement of Macedonians in Vojvodina

President Ivanov and Prime Minister Vucic expressed satisfaction with the achieved level of overall cooperation and the exchange of mutual visits during the period when we mark 20 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and when the two countries are celebrating significant anniversaries, adding that they give impulse to the societies to cooperate and contribute in creating a positive climate in the mutual relations.

At the meeting, they exchanged information on the political and economic situation, as well as on the current situation in the region.

In the area of ​​economic cooperation, they expressed willingness to further deepen the cooperation, to examine the possibilities for joint appearance on third markets, joint tourist offer and welcomed the initiative and expressed support for organizing business forum and establishment of Macedonian - Serbian Business Club. Commitment to infrastructure projects will help increase the trade volume. The completion of Corridor 10, the project Danube-Morava-Vardar, were the topics discussed.

In terms of the migrant crisis and security challenges, it was agreed the cooperation to continue, to apply a joint approach to the EU in case of a new migrant wave and more intensive cooperation of the security services.

President Ivanov at the meeting called to form working groups as soon as possible and to hold expert talks on the implementation of the bilateral agreement on protection of the cultural and historical monuments, and the Joint Commission for the implementation of contractual obligations of the agreement on protection of the Macedonian minority in Serbia and the Serbian minority in Macedonia, which is in effect since 2005.

The Macedonian President received assurances from Prime Minister Vucic that the working groups and the joint commission will soon be formed to implement the agreements, and that after the elections the second joint session of the two governments will be held.

The commitment on infrastructure projects will help increase the trade volume. A discussion topic at the meeting was also the completion of Corridor 10 and the project Vardar-Morava-Danube.

The initiative for establishing Macedonian - Serbian business forum was presented at the Macedonian - Serbian Business Forum in Belgrade organized by the Economic Chamber of Macedonia and the Economic Chamber of Serbia, supported by the presidents of Macedonia and Serbia.

The business forum includes around hundred companies from Macedonia and Serbia, and the main message was that the joint performance in third countries will increase the chances for our companies.

Annually, the average trade exchange between Macedonia and Serbia is about 700 million US Dollars, and in the first six months of this year it was around 340 million US dollars.