[wzslider]By: Nevena Šarenac
BiH, Serbia and Turkey have been interwoven throughout history, the present ties them together, and it is certain that they have a common future, announced at today’s trilateral meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Serbia and Turkey in Sarajevo.
The Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH and the BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Zlatko Lagumdžija hosted the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Turkey, Ivan Mrkić and Ahmet Davutoğlu, respectively. They thanked Lagumdžija for the warm welcome.
Minister Lagumdžija said that today’s meeting was a preparation and an introduction to the upcoming trilateral meeting at the presidential level, which will be held in Ankara in seven days, and in the framework in which an economic forum and meeting of the Ministers of Economy of BiH, Serbia and Turkey will be held.
“We agreed in the future to strive to maintain trilateral meetings at the Ministerial level two times a year, in the spring and summer, in the hopes that these meetings will be preparation for trilateral meetings at the level of heads of states at least once a year’’, said Lagumdžija to journalists after the meeting at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said that the next trilateral meeting at the Ministerial level should be held in October in Belgrade.
“For that trilateral meeting we identified three areas: economy, education, cultural cooperation and tourism’’, said Lagumdžija.
The Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Mrkić thinks that the trilateral meetings represent the basis for the further stabilization of this area, strengthening of friendship between all countries in the region, and to contribute to the safe development prospects of the region.
“The political relations of our countries are of high quality that they promise further economic activity and a joint appearance in fourth markets’’, said Minister Mrkić.
He confirmed at the conference for journalists that everything that was done today was for the trilateral summit in Ankara, as well as for future meetings.
He pointed out that on the eve of the summit in Ankara the Ministers of Trade of the three countries would sign an Agreement on economic cooperation, which would institutionalize the economic relations of BIH, Serbia and Turkey.
“Our three countries are doing everything that is necessary to form a common future and for the entire region to be a prosperous area’’, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, who extended a warm welcome to his colleagues from BiH and Turkey in October in Belgrade.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu thinks that the first trilateral meeting at the Ministerial level, which took place in October 2012, was one of the most significant events when it comes to regional cooperation.
“Our goal then was to eliminate the existing taboos and define our common future. The success of today’s meeting lies in the fact that we have managed to move from the phase of defining and overcoming difficulties to the phase of joint agreements and planning a positive environment and joint future” said Turkish Minister Davutoğlu.
He said that the trilateral meetings are a great incentive for the development of relations at the bilateral level.
In this regard, he emphasized that it is particularly important that the relations between Turkey and Serbia, and BiH and Serbia in the last period was marked by a major breakthrough.
According to him, the next trilateral meeting at the Ministerial level in Belgrade would be an opportunity to show that prosperity is the common future of BiH, Serbia and Turkey, and that political and economic stability of the countries in the region would attain an enviable level.
