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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia and the US sign SOFA

Belgrade, 8 September 2006

Serbian President Boris Tadic and US State Secretary Condoleezza Rice signed yesterday in Washington a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which regulates the rights and obligations of American military personnel on the territory of Serbia.

Boris Tadic and Condoleezza Rice

Author: Tanjug/EPA

The Serbian government has adopted the agreement which represents a strengthening of cooperation in defence between Serbia and the US, based on full respect of the sovereignty of both countries and the Charter of the UN.

This agreement allows planning and implementation of bilateral military activities, such as joint military exercises and exchange of staff, and allows Serbia to begin an interstate programme of cooperation between the Serbian military and the Ohio National Guard.

Serbian President Boris Tadic, who is on a three-day visit to the US, also talked last night with US Vice President Dick Cheney, and the collocutors agreed on the occasion that it is in the interest of both sides that Serbia and the US have the best of mutual relations in the future.

Tadic also delivered a lecture last night at the Heritage Foundation and said on the occasion that an imposed solution for the future status of Kosovo-Metohija would jeopardize establishment of democracy in the Balkans and bring into question the survival of multiethnic countries in the region and the world.

The Serbian President will meet today with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington, following which he will travel to Colombus, Ohio, where he will visit the seat of the Ohio National Guard, since this state has been specified as a strategic partner of Serbia in the area of defence, in the framework of military cooperation between Serbia and the US.

Tadic will thus wrap up his three-day visit to the US, during which he has talked with top US officials on the course of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija, relations between Serbia and the US, Euro-Atlantic integration and military cooperation.