Assuming the presidency Gojkovic said that Serbia would promote the development of regional cooperation, improvement of the organisation’s efficiency and visibility and work toward strengthening its international status, stressing that Serbia is committed to the development of friendly relations with the member states, stability in the region, and improvement and creation of an economic and political climate conducive to cooperation.

“We are in favour of cooperation in the spheres of economy, transportation, energy, culture and education, and the continuation of parliamentary dialogue and parliamentary diplomacy, as well as expansion of the topics the Parliamentary Assembly deals with such as migrations, information technologies, innovations”, said Gojkovic.

The National Assembly Speaker said that the PABSEC has so far established excellent cooperation with many a parliamentary organisation – the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, OSCE PA, IPU, Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States, European Parliament, just to name a few, and that it would continue to do so during Serbia’s presidency.

On the eve of the General Debate Gojkovic met with Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin. The two parliament speakers said they were very pleased by the strengthening of parliamentary relations under the auspices of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Agreement and reaffirmed the friendly relations between the two countries.

Gojkovic thanked Russia on its principled stance on Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty i.e. the fact that it had not recognised the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo-Metohija, and Naryshkin said that the Russian Federation would never do so.

Naryshkin also said that Russia appreciates the fact that Serbia had not joined the sanctions against Russia.

BSEC Parliamentary Assembly comprises 12 member states – besides Serbia, in also includes Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.