President meets with Albanian counterpart during summit

President meets with Albanian counterpart during summit

DUBROVNIK -- Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić met on Tuesday with his Albanian counterpart Bujar Nishani while attending a regional gathering in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Nikolić congratulated Nishani on Albania's recently acquired status of EU membership candidate.

"Serbia embraces cooperation with all its neighbours," Nikolić stressed, adding that EU membership was a common goal of both Serbia and Albania and would improve their cooperation, the president's office said in a statement.

Nishani expressed regret over the recent floods in Serbia, underscoring that his country would give a contribution within its means at the donor conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

The two officials acknowledged that trade between Serbia and Albania was on the rise and agreed that cooperation should be improved in politics, economy and other areas to facilitate progress of both nations, the statement said.

Nikolić and Nishani were in Croatia on Tuesday to attend the annual meeting of the heads of state of Southeast European countries, whose guest this year was German Chancellor Angela Merkel.