The sitting of the Council for Cooperation between Serbia and Republika Srpska was held at the Serbian government building on Friday.

Serbian President Boris Tadic qualified the sitting as the first step in the deepening of special parallel relations between Belgrade and Banja Luka, adding that this does not call Serbia's relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) into question.

What we are trying to do here is to deepen the special parallel relations between Serbia and RS as part of the Dayton Agreement, with full legitimacy and legality, which does not call into question Serbia's relations with BiH and its integrity, Tadic told reporters following the Council's meeting attended by RS President Milorad Dodik, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and his Republika Srpska counterpart Aleksandar Dzombic and a number of Serbian and RS ministers.

Tadic added that the cooperation would continue and that the officials who attended the meeting agreed that the two governments should hold sittings twice a year.

According to Tadic, the Friday meeting focused on infrastructure and energy projects and issues in the fields of agriculture and education.

Tadic said that the Council also discussed the realisation of the project on the construction of Pojate-Visegrad road, which represents one section of the international Corridor 10 in RS, as well as the construction of highway from Banja Luka to Bijeljina, eastern RS, with one line branching toward Corridor 10.

The Serbian president said that some of the planned projects refer to the construction of two or three more bridges over the Drina.

According to Tadic, when it comes to cooperation between Serbia and RS in the field of energy, the officials agreed that the planned projects are being implemented at a slower pace than expected.

Tadic said that Serbia and RS cannot perform projects on the Drina River independently and that in this matter they need support of international partners.

Pointing out that the Council paid special attention to the field of education as Serbia and RS, and the entire region as well, are facing insufficient education, Tadic said that the most important investments are those in the domain of education, which is a prerequisite for the development of the two economies' competitiveness.

Relations between Belgrade and Banja Luka have never been better and Serbia and Republika Srpska (RS) are now most important economic partners, RS President Milorad Dodik stated in Belgrade on Friday.

He noted that Serbia invested around EUR 700 million in RS over the past five years, which helped improve the economic situation and open a considerable number of jobs in RS and at the same time assisted Serbia in the process of developing its economy into a regional one.

The generation of politicians currently heading Serbia and RS is doing its best to strengthen economy, connect economic subjects and implement the Agreement on Special Parallel Relations, Dodik said following the meeting of the Council for Cooperation between Serbia and RS, which was also attended by Serbian President Boris Tadic, Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic and his RS counterpart Aleksandar Dzombic and a number of ministers.

The realisation of projects in the domain of judiciary and equalisation of terms and conditions represent a contribution to the European integration of Serbia and RS, Dodik noted.