The Australian Parliamentary Delegation visiting Serbia from 6 to 10 October 2008, talked today at the National Assembly House to the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gordana Comic, the President of the Forward Serbia Deputy Group Tomislav Nikolic and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Dr Dragoljub Micunovic.

The Delegation of the Australian Parliament was headed by Roger Price, deputy and head of the ruling deputy group, and also included deputy Danna Vale, delegation deputy head and Senator Judith Troeth.

The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Gordana Comic who received the Australian parliamentarians on the behalf of the Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, briefed the guests on the development of parliamentarianism in Serbia in the past eighth years and the organisation and work of the parliament.

There was talk of future parliamentary cooperation of the two countries, where the Australian parliamentarians expressed their readiness the convey their working experience.

The President of the Forward Serbia Deputy Group Tomislav Nikolic briefed the Australian parliamentarians on the current events on the Serbian political scene, the reasons for the blockade of the Parliament’s work and the main goals of the newly formed Serbian Progressive Party. He stressed that in the past eighth years Serbia has traversed the difficult road of transition, but that new conditions are continually set on its European road. There is only one condition we can not fulfill, which is the recognition of the independence of Kosovo-Metohija, all the others are acceptable, Nikolic pointed out.

Talking to the delegation of the Australian Parliament, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Dr Dragoljub Micunovic stressed that, besides establishing and developing political relations between two countries, parliamentary meetings also bear the task of encouraging economic cooperation.

Chairman Micunovic stressed that the Serbian Parliament and Government are pro-European oriented and that their goals are the construction of a modern state, strengthening the economy and institutions and the rule of law. The hardest problem Serbia faces is the preservation of its territorial integrity compromised by the illegal declaration of independence of the Province of Kosovo-Metohija. Serbia has implemented several measures and activities in the field of diplomacy, among them submitting a resolution to the UN requesting the opinion of the International Court of Justice in the Hague on whether separatist states compromising the territorial integrity of sovereign states can be recognised. That is one of the most important issues of international legal order, Micunovic stressed in his talk with the Australian guests.