The Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, stated for the Chinese national television channel CHTV, that she believes that the relations between Serbia and the People’s Republic of China will only get better and stronger in the years to come and pointed out that thanks to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, the exchange of goods with that country has increased 152 times.
Brnabić pointed out that the iron friendship of the two countries was strengthened mostly during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The lesson we all learned during the pandemic is a return to multilateralism, cooperation and the joint struggle of all the countries of the world. The Belt and Road Initiative is an excellent example of that, and we will continue to cooperate with the People’s Republic of China within that framework as well”, she stated.
The interview was conducted immediately after Ana Brnabić became Prime Minister for the third time.
The journalist of the Chinese state television reminded that President Vučić has repeatedly emphasized that he has boundless confidence in the Prime Minister and that he is a person who is very popular in China, especially on Chinese social networks.
“We know that Aleksandar Vucic is popular in China and we are proud of that. Working with Aleksandar Vucic is an honor, a privilege, but also a great responsibility. He works day and night for Serbia and is fully committed to the progress of Serbia”, said Brnabić.
She pointed out that Serbia, as a small country in the heart of Europe, before Aleksandar Vučić was led in such a way as to satisfy the interests of other much larger and more powerful countries.
“That is the most precious advice he gave me, that we must always and at all times take care of our interests, that Serbia should be our first place. And it has been like that since he became the prime minister, until today while he is the president of the state in second term”, said the prime minister.
When asked about the iron friendship between Serbia and China, the Prime Minister said that she often hears that it is not the best way to get to the European Union, but that more than 90 percent of Chinese investments are in Western Europe, in EU member states.
“They used Chinese investments to improve the living standards of their countries in the past, which is completely understandable. Now when we want to do that, we can hear that it is not good. Here I am going back to the words of Aleksandar Vučić, that we should be guided exclusively by our interests , so the friendship between our two countries will be further strengthened in the future”, the prime minister was clear.
Today, China is the second largest foreign trade partner of the Republic of Serbia, and as the journalist pointed out, the exchange of goods between the two countries has increased as much as 152 times.
“Just to repeat so that everyone is clear, our trade has increased not by 152 percent, but by 152 times. That is really impressive and all this has happened since Aleksandar Vučić came to power. By signing the free trade agreement with the People’s Republic of China, in in terms of cooperation between our two countries, the sky will be the limit. In the past few years, our exports to China have reached one billion euros. This may not be a spectacular figure for your country, or some other big countries, but for a country like Serbia, it is really impressive. result”, the Prime Minister pointed out
When asked what kind of country Serbia was when she became prime minister, and what it is like today, Brnabić said that today Serbia is a different country in many ways.
“An enviable development. When I took office as prime minister, the annual export of ICT services was 375 million euros, while this year we will exceed 2.6 billion euros. Now we will focus on the development of artificial intelligence, bioengineering and biomedicine. It is certain that in in these areas, we plan to strengthen cooperation with the People’s Republic of China”, concluded Brnabić, RTV writes.
