First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic and Macedonian Minister of the Interior Gordana Jankuloska signed the Agreement on Regulating Border Traffic on Saturday.

Dacic and Jankuloska said at a joint press conference that this document will enable citizens of the two countries living in the border zones to pass state borders with IDs only.

The ministers supported the initiative to enable all citizens of Serbia and FYRMacedonia to pass state borders with IDs only.

Dacic welcomed the signing of the Agreement because it confirms even stronger operational cooperation between police units of the two countries, noting that this should encourage cooperation in other areas as well.

So far the cooperation has been very good in the suppression of all kinds of crime through a series of joint operations, especially in the suppression of drug smuggling and human trafficking, he recalled.

Jankuloska said that Serbia and Macedonia have always had good police cooperation which should be developed in the future since both countries face same problems.

Dacic and Jankuloska highlighted the need for cooperation not only of the police units of the two states in the fight against terrorism, but of the entire region.

Jankuloska said that this fight requires engagement of all the relevant institutions in the region and pointed to global terrorist threats that are present at the world level.

The two ministers also talked about cooperation in the fight against radical Islamic groups, which also requires coordination of relevant services.

They pointed to successful resolution of the problem of false asylum seekers who tried to enter the EU through Macedonia and Serbia. Dacic specified that they were mostly illegal immigrants of Afro-Asian origin.

He underlined that special attention should be paid to this matter in order to avoid criticism from the European Commission.

At the meeting which preceded the signing of the Agreement, several initiatives were launched whose objective is to establish more productive police cooperation.

Dacic suggested that the agreement on readmission be signed soon. A Serbian delegation will visit FYRMacedonia next week to attend the first round of negotiations on the matter.

In case the final text is harmonised, the agreement will be signed at the Regional conference of ministers of justice and the interior which will be held in Belgrade on 4 and 5 October.

The ministers talked about changing the Memorandum on police cooperation signed in 2003 in the form of interstate agreement, and about the agreements on joint arrest warrant and transborder cooperation in case of emergency situations.