Turkey, Serbia lift visa procedures

Turkey and Serbia also signed five more cooperation agreements, particularly one regarding contracting services during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's formal visit to Serbia.

Erdogan said the solidarity between the two countries had been further improved with the newly-signed six agreements.

"We have seen that we have given priority to only commercial dimension of our economic relations, and that we have not made best use of our potential in direct investments, particularly contracting services," Erdogan told a joint press conference with his Serbian counterpart Mirko Cvetkovic in Belgrade.

This is the first time Erdogan is paying a formal visit to Serbia, a country Turkey "considers an important neighbor with which it shares a common history and culture".

Erdogan said Turkey was encouraging its businessmen to make use of the economic potential in Serbia, and did not have any doubts that this country would do everything in its power to help Turkish entrepreneurs.

The Turkish prime minister said Turkish and Serbian governments would do everything they could to open military airports to use of civil aviation with the cooperation of defense ministries.

Erdogan said the Turkish Airlines (THY), Turkey's national airliner, was also eager to cooperate with the Serbian Airlines.

Also speaking in the press conference, Cvetkovic said Erdogan and he exchanged views on cooperation between police departments, and economic, cultural and educational cooperation.

Cvetkovic said they also discussed cooperation on energy and aviation.

Following the press conference, Serbian President Boris Tadic received Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan.

Erdogan later proceeded to the Serbian city of Novi Pazar to inaugurate Turkish Culture House.


/World Bulletin/