Serbia

BELGRADE - Jadranka Joksimovic, Serbia's minister without portfolio responsible for EU integration and national IPA coordinator, talked on Friday with Jean-Eric Paquet, director at the Directorate General for Enlargement of the European Commission, who voiced readiness to support the development of small and medium sized enterprises even more strongly.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday, during an introductory lecture for the new generation of students of the Foreign Ministry Diplomacy Academy, that Serbia would need diplomats more and more to protect its national interest.

BELGRADE - Director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric said Friday it was Serbia's great interest to see that stability and the rule of law were there in KiM, arguing that the current situation in the province was worse than before the Brussels agreement.

BELGRADE - A deleation of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Protection led by Minister Snezana Bogosavljevic Boskovic, officials of the Privatisation Agency, PKB corporation and Belgrade city hall met a delegation of the China Development Bank to discuss possible Chinese investments in the Serbian agriculture.

BELGRADE - The Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) project has been officially launched in Paris, with Serbia as one of its founders.

The project was launched earlier this week, with European Commission officials and delegations from 15 countries in attendance.

Hague Tribunal should be abolished - FM

BELGRADE -- Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić says Serbia bears no responsibility for the statements made by the leader of the Radicals (SRS) and Hague indictee Vojislav Šešelj.

BELGRADE - US Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby said on Friday the Serbian government had taken many steps in a good direction when came to improving the business environment, adding that the expected adoption of the new laws on planning and construction and on inspections would continue this trend.

BELGRADE - The folk ensemble and orchestra of the Belgrade-based culture and arts association KUD Branko Cvetkovic will deliver five performances in Tokyo to present traditional and other original choreographies of Serbia's folklore to people of Japan.

BELGRADE - Officials of the Serbian and Egyptian Ministries of Defence signed in Belgrade a plan of military cooperation.

The document was signed during a session of the Serbian-Egyptian Mixed Military Committee, the Serbian Defence Ministry released on its website.

The two sides expressed mutual interest in promotion and intensification of cooperation in the defence area.

BELGRADE - Zorana Mihajlovic, Serbian deputy prime minister and minister of transportation, construction and infrastructure, stated on Friday that the business environment in Serbia is improving, adding that the government is open for entrepreneurs' proposals for its further improvement and strengthening of the economic sector.