Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremic said today that regional cooperation is of great importance to face the challenges of today, noting that it is one of Serbia’s foreign policy priorities.

Jeremic said in an address to participants of the meeting coordinator Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AII) in Belgrade that the year 2011 is the year of regional cooperation.

Belgrade is symbolically the capital of that cooperation, the Minister said and pointed out that there are three regional organisations that work.

These are the Central European Initiative (CEI), AII and the Cooperation Process in Southeast Europe, he said adding that Serbia this year chaired all three.

That is why we are in a position to try to make connections among these organisations stronger, which will be one of the priorities of our presidency, he said.

The main common theme will be the fight against organised crime, because we believe that organised crime is one of the largest and most difficult challenges we face as a region, he said.

With this problem no country can cope alone, Jeremic said, adding that regional cooperation is a necessity.

Serbia is very well-prepared for the three presidency, he said and expressed hope that by the end of the year we will achieve positive results.

Asked whether there were attempts by Kosovo to become a member of regional organisations, the Minister responded that there were such attempts.

Our policy is clear when it comes to regional meetings. We do not want to exclude representatives of Pristina, but only within the framework of UNMIK and the UN Resolution 1244 which clearly defines the way in which the representatives of Pristina are allowed to participate, he reiterated.

Jeremic told reporters that Serbia is using the experience of many countries that are already in the EU, or are about to become EU members.

Serbia, he recalled, has programmes of cooperation and has signed agreements on exchange of experiences in the European process with many countries which joined the EU.

The most recent experience is the experience of Croatia, which is about to enter the EU, he said.

Jeremic stressed that Serbia is using the experiences of other countries that in the last ten years have gone through all stages of the European process.

Serbia on 1 June took over from Montenegro a one-year AII presidency.

AII was founded in May 2000 in order to improve regional cooperation among countries of the region, especially in terms of security, stability and environmental protection.

This initiative currently consists of eight countries: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.