Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Wednesday in Belgrade that Norway strongly supports Serbia's EU membership aspirations and at the same time stressed that Serbia needs to improve its investment environment if it wants new Norwegian investments.

Telenor is the leading example of Norwegian investments in Serbia. We want to see new investments, but for that to happen Serbia needs to improve its investment environment, i.e. improve transparency and fight corruption, Stoere said at a news conference after a meeting with his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic.

He stressed that his country will do everything in its power to assist and support Serbia in its path toward the EU.

Jeremic and Stoere agreed that the relations between the two countries have traditionally been friendly.

"Serbia and Norway have traditionally been allies and we see our relations continuing to develop in that spirit. We are grateful to Norway for the support and financial assistance it has given us in the past ten years," Jeremic said.

Jeremic said that he also discussed the Western Balkans and regional cooperation with the Norwegian FM.

Stoere pointed out that Norway will cooperate with Western Balkan countries with a view to maintaining peace and stability, with a special focus on the role of Serbia.

Tadic and Store: Great potential for intensification of cooperation

Serbian President Boris Tadic and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store have assessed in Belgrade that bilateral relations between the two countries are traditionally good, with great potential to intensify the economic cooperation.

Tadic thanked Store for the Norwegian assistance in the field of democratic reforms in Serbia and the humanitarian and development aid.

Dacic: Norway is one of the main partners of the Serbian Interior Ministry

Norway has been one of the main partners of the Serbian Interior Ministry in the past few years, and donation from the Norwegian government worth several million euros was spent on building capacities of the Ministry of Interior and the police, said Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic.

After the meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Dacic said that Serbia has been lately working to improve the forensic capacities and that another grant was received from Norway, which is intended for the establishment of the regional forensic center in Uzice.

Dacic said that through the joint activities, authorities of the two countries have almost neutralized the problem of false asylum seekers in Norway.