At the eleventh sitting, commenced on 28 May and continued on 11 and 16 June, the Foreign Affairs Committee considered several items from the Committee’s purview.

Due to a lack of quorum, the Committee members held a meeting on 28 May where they shared their opinions on the Bill amending and modifying the Foreign Affairs Law, and went on to conduct interviews with the newly-appointed ambassadors of the Republic of Serbia to the Kingdom of Holland Cedomir Rajkovic, to FR Germany Iva Viskovic and to the Syrian Arab Republic Jovan Vujasinovic, before departure to diplomatic duty.

Addressing the Committee members, the newly-appointed ambassadors stated the basic guidelines and specific assignments of Serbian embassies in these states and responded to various questions.

Ambassador Rajkovic said that the relations between the two countries are not good because Holland is conditioning Serbia’s accession to the European Union, and the relations of the two countries are additionally difficult due to Holland’s decision to recognize Kosovo’s independence. He gave a positive estimate of the economic relations and the interest of Dutch and Serbian businessmen in cooperation.

Ambassador Viskovic stressed that Germany is Serbia’s ally in Euro-integration and wishes to assist its way to the European Union. Germany is Serbia’s first economic partner in the European Union, and its decision to recognize independent Kosovo should not be an obstacle to further cooperation between Serbia and Germany, Viskovic believes.

Ambassador Vujasinovic emphasized that Syria’s extremely friendly disposition towards Serbia adding that it is firm in its decision not to recognize the independence of Kosovo. Concerning it, he pointed out Syria’s strong influence on the Islamic world regarding the Kosovo issue.

In the continuation, held on 11 June, within item – Deputy Friendship Groups, the Committee discussed the initiative to form a deputy friendship group with Portugal, established the composition of the deputy friendship group with the Maltese Order, as well as the expansion of the composition of the deputy friendship groups with Slovenia and Norway. They also discussed the nominations for the presidents of the deputy friendship groups.

Continuing the eleventh sitting on 16 June, the Committee consented to conclude the Framework Agreement on Parliamentary Cooperation between the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal and the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The Committee members continued the debate on the nominations for deputy friendship groups’ presidents and adopted decisions on the appointment of deputy friendship group presidents for about fifteen countries. Among others, National Assembly Speaker Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic was appointed president of the friendship group with the Russian Federation, Vlajko Senic president of the friendship group with the United States of America, Suzana Grubjesic president of the friendship group with the United Kingdom and Zeljko Ivanji was appointed president of the friendship group with Italy.

The Committee unanimously adopted the 2008 Report on the International Cooperation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia.

The Committee accepted several invitations to send National Assembly delegations to participate in parliamentary sessions of international organisations and adopted the reports on visits and contacts realised in the previous period.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman Prof. Dr Dragoljub Micunovic.