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Serbia, Turkey vow to maintain good relations despite Russian jet incident

Xinhua, December 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Serbia needs to maintain good relations both with Turkey and Russia, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday at at press conference in Belgrade after meeting his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

"Serbia is a small country that has good ties with Russia, but also with Turkey," Vucic said while answering a journalist question about his view of the downing of a Russian aircraft by Turkish military forces.

Davutoglu arrived for a two-day visit with a delegation of 130 Turkish businessmen who will take part in a bilateral business forum that started on Monday.

"Serbia would be glad if the two countries could settle their conflicts, and they are both friends to us," Vucic said at the press conference.

Vucic said that he expects that the trade between Serbia and Turkey come to more than 1 billion U.S. dollars by 2017, compared to 780 million U.S. dollars in 2014.

Davutoglu said that this visit proves that "no third party can influence relations between Serbia and Turkey".

According to him, two sides agreed that they will form a joint council at the highest level, an arrangement which Turkey already has with Bulgaria and Greece in order to further develop their bilateral cooperation. Endit