He reminded the attending that official Belgrade and Banja Luka had signed an agreement on special ties twice, in 2001 and 2006, but that those agreements were just so many words for more than a decade.

It was only after the election of Aleksandar Vucic for President of Serbia, that Serbia and Srpska established true fraternal ties and intensive cooperation.

"Thanks to President Vucic's policy, we now have a new bridge on the Drina, between Bratunac and Ljubovija, we have a beautiful new bridge over the Sava in Raca, by the end of the year we will have a highway from Kuzmin to Bijeljina, we have a new healthcare clinic in Stanari, we have an elementary school Serbia in Samac, we have a school of the same name in Pale, a completely renovated Municipality building in Drvar and dozens of other buildings throughout the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in those places where Serbs are the majority nation, which were built with money from the budget of the Republic of Serbia. "Serbia has so far allocated more than 100 million euros for that purpose," said Maric.

He said that the fraternal relationship between Serbia and Srpska is also reflected in the exceptional cooperation in the field of nurturing the culture of memory. Until 10-15 years ago, official Belgrade's policy on this matter was mainly limited to apologizing to Croats, Muslims and Albanians for the crimes committed by Serbs in the last defensive-patriotic wars and shyly reminding them of their crimes against Serbs.

But today, Serbia and Srpska jointly commemorate the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and the National Flag, the anniversary of the victory in the Great War, the anniversary of the Storm, the anniversary of the breakthrough of the Thessaloniki Front, the anniversary of the First Serbian Uprising, the anniversary of the suffering of the Serbian people in Podrinje, Vidovdan, the suffering of the Serbian people in Jasenovac and other significant dates from Serbian history.

"The crown of good relations between Belgrade and Banja Luka is the holding of the All-Serbian Assembly in Belgrade and the adoption of the Declaration on the Protection of National and Political Rights and the Common Future of the Serbian People. This is an extremely important, strategic document, a truly national programme, the implementation of which will be of great importance for the further strengthening of cooperation between Serbia and Srpska and for the protection of the rights, identity, culture and traditions of our people, not only between Timok and Una, but also in all the former Yugoslav republics,” Maric said.

He presented and briefly explained the most important points of the declaration to the gathered.

Maric used part of the lecture to present his nine books, in which he described the crimes committed against the Serbian people in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the defensive-patriotic wars from 1991 to 1995, in the NATO-pact aggression against FR Yugoslavia and by of Albanian terrorists in Kosovo-Metohija before that aggression and after the arrival of NATO troops in the southern Serbian province.

Maric presented the President of the Assembly of Krajina Serbs with a stone from Kajmakcalan.

The lecture in Chicago was attended by Consul of the Republic of Serbia Andrija Zecevic, Vice Consul Aleksandar Djordjevic, President of the Association of Serbs from the Republic of Srpska in the USA Zeljko Zivak and President of the Association Assembly of Krajina Serbs Stevo Dokic.