Gül first Turkish president in Serbia after 23 years

In Belgrade, Gül had talks with his Serbian counterpart, Boris Tadic, and Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. During his visit, the president is being accompanied by a business delegation as well as by State Minister Faruk Çelik and Labor and Social Security Minister Ömer Dinçer.

In an interview with Belgrade daily Danas ahead of his visit, Gül described Turkey and Serbia as key countries in the Balkans, adding that they need to improve their bilateral cooperation in order to maintain such key roles.

The development of joint projects is important for peace and stability in the region, Gül told the daily, according to B92, a Belgrade-based online news network.

“Adopting an approach of strategic cooperation -- that has peace and stability in the Balkans as its goal -- is important, as well as developing joint projects. My friend President Boris Tadic and I will dedicate ourselves to cooperation turned toward the future and to concrete projects that we will be able to achieve,” Gül was quoted as saying.

In an apparent reference to the fact that relations between Turkey and Serbia were strained when Turkey became one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, Gül said Turkey’s recognition of Kosovo “was not directed against Serbia.”

Turkey’s recognition was related to its “strong and special relations with the people of Kosovo” and that “position should in no way stand in the way of the development of relations between Turkey and Serbia,” the president added.

When reminded by the Danas daily of Turkey’s participation in the ongoing international efforts to help Bosnian leaders find a compromise on constitutional reforms that could bringing Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to European Union membership, Gül underlined the importance attached by Turkey to the preservation of Bosnia’s “territorial integrity, multicultural and multiethnic composition and sovereignty.”

“Attempts to undermine authorities in the central government will not bring any good to any ethnic group. Turkey wishes to see integration, not fragmentation, prevail in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that is the desire of the international community,” he said.