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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Visit to US successful, constructive

Belgrade, 8 February 2010

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic said today that his visit to the United States had been successful and constructive. During his visit, Dacic met with representatives of various US security departments and discussed issues related to the joint fight against crime.

Author: Tanjug

In an interview with Tanjug news agency, Dacic said that during the meetings in the United States it had been jointly concluded that cooperation between the two countries was excellent and that future cooperation would be useful in the fight against organised crime, international terrorism and drug trafficking.

This cooperation will include exchange of experiences and training for special units, said Dacic. Agreement was reached concerning several joint projects for the future. It was agreed that US Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will visit Serbia, said Dacic.

Cooperation with the US Transportation Department is extremely important for Serbia as US President Barack Obama views public works programmes as a way out of recession, he said. This visit was one more step forward in reviving relationships between the United States and Serbia after a long period of confrontation in the past decade, said Dacic.

Dacic said that he had also attended a prayer breakfast together with representatives of Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina at which he had conveyed to US officials that Serbia respected the Dayton Agreement and that it would respect any decision made by all sides concerned.

Dacic said that he had also met with Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero at the prayer breakfast and that they had discussed Serbia’s EU integration process.

Author: Tanjug

He said that he had thanked Spain for its support for Serbia’s EU integration process and struggle to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Spain and Serbia have excellent bilateral relations and I hope that this will have a positive effect on Serbia’s EU integration process during the Spanish EU presidency

Dacic also said that Kosovo-Metohjia had not been granted visa liberalisation because the interim institutions in Kosovo-Metohija had not fulfilled the required conditions. We were forced to issue passports to citizens living in Kosovo-Metohija at the coordinating administration in Belgrade and the removal of visa restrictions does not apply to these passports, said Dacic.

Albanians living in Kosovo-Metohija are Serbian citizens with equal rights and they have the right to be issued with biometric passports, but under the circumstances we had to organise the issuance of passports to residents of the province at the department in Belgrade, said Dacic. The police are constantly verifying whether Albanians from Kosovo-Metohija have reported false addresses of residence in central Serbia in order to be issued new biometric passports. It is not true that a large number of people with temporary residence were issued passports and action is taken if information in applying for a passport is found to be false, said Dacic.

Regardless of the position of the Albanian politicians concerning the unilateral declaration of independence, it pleases me to see that Albanians are interested in acquiring a Serbian passport as this confirms that they are citizens of Serbia, said Dacic.