The forthcoming visit of Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to Israel will be a historic one, Israeli Ambassador in Serbia Yossef Levy stated on Wednesday and underscored that he strongly believes in the economic cooperation between the two friendly countries.
As far as I know, this is the first time for the Serbian prime minister to pay an official visit to Israel and it is the sign of gratitude to Vucic and Serbia as a very close and friendly country, Levy told Tanjug and expressed the belief that the visit is highly important because it stresses the centuries' long friendship between Serbian and Jewish people, as well as the joint goals and challenges they are facing.
During his visit to Jerusalem, the Serbian prime minister will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, former president Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. In Tel Aviv, Vucic will meet with the country's business representatives.
This will be a meeting between two like-minded prime ministers, Levy said and added that the two countries are facing challenges embodied in the improvement of the economic situation, exchange between Israel and Serbia, celebration of the anniversary of the tragic fate of Jews in Europe, and most importantly the deepening of understanding of strategic alliance and mutual respect. This is an act of a friendly visit to a friendly country, Levy noted.
He underscored that the Israeli companies are already present in Serbia in various sectors, such as investments, trade, research, real estate, advanced technologies and especially agriculture which he qualified as an area with enormous potential.
He expressed the belief that Serbia's economic future is very closely connected to the acceleration of reforms in agriculture and everyone knows that, and added that food can be exported but not imported and this will probably happen.
Levy expressed the belief that Israeli companies would be happy to be a part of the positive development, and the Serbian prime minister understands this and he is pushing the reforms in Serbia forward so that the country may attract investors, including those from Israel, in a number of domains. Levy said that he deeply believes in Serbia-Israel cooperation.
He underscored that Israel has nothing against any nation in the Balkans but it has not recognised Kosovo's independence.
Levy welcomed the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina as the model for solving problems between nations which is for now possible in the Balkans but not in the Near East which has been hit by general turmoil, unprecedented in recent history.
Israel has not recognised Kosovo's independence, primarily because of its dimension in the Near East and this is the predominant reason, Levy said and added that he believes it is very brave and courageous to conduct the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Israel welcomes and respects this model, he said and added that the worst is over for the Balkans.
He noted that the same does not apply to Near East, and added that political dialogue is the only way to achieve a genuine solution. To sit at the same table and conduct talks is the right way to achieve normalisation of relations, he said.
Source: Tanjug, Photo: Tanjug T. Valic