Belgrade and Moscow officials signed a memorandum on Monday to deepen cooperation between the capitals of Serbia and Russia.
The document was signed as part of the "Moscow Days in Belgrade" event.
Serbia, which says it aims to join the European Union, remains one of the Kremlin's few European partners almost four years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine.
The Memorandum of Cooperation between the capitals of Serbia and Russia was signed by the President of the Belgrade Assembly, Nikola Nikodijević, and the Minister of the Moscow Government and Head of the Department for Foreign Economy and International Relations, Sergey Cheryomin.
Nikodijevic stated that the memorandum should enable further cooperation in the fields of transport, culture, education and sports.
“It is very important for us that such a big city as Moscow, one of the largest European cities, wants to have close cooperation with the city of Belgrade,” he said at a press conference.
“I believe that the memorandum we signed today will be a kind of ‘entry ticket’ to the Russian market for many of our businessmen, but also that Belgrade and Serbia will thus secure new investments from Russia,” Nikodijevic said.
Nikodijevic assessed that the previous ten-year memorandum of cooperation had improved relations between the two capitals.
“At the same time, in this way we ‘opened the door’ to our businessmen who had cooperation with companies from Moscow and all over Russia,” he added.
Moscow official Sergei Cheryomin recalled the first “Moscow Days in Belgrade” event in 2016.
A year later, the "Belgrade Days in Moscow" were held in the Russian capital.
“The political situation in recent years has not allowed us to continue in the same spirit, but thanks to the efforts of the city of Belgrade and the favorable climate prevailing this year, we are renewing this tradition,” said Cheryomin.
The Memorandum of Cooperation between the capitals was signed on the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from Nazi occupation in World War II.
The city was liberated jointly by forces of the Soviet Red Army and the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army./ REL