Chinese President Xi Jinping hints at visiting Serbia next year

Photo: Tanjug/AP

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Monday in Beijing, after her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, that the conversation went well and that Xi indicated that he would try to come to Serbia next year.

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"That is a big deal for us, for our country and all our citizens. We have confirmed mutual partnership, support, friendship in the political and economic sense," Brnabic told reporters.

In the political sense, she stated, China will never change its position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija (which Beijing does not recognize as independent).

Brnabic stressed that Serbia fully respects the One China policy, a stance that will also not change. As for the economic relations between Serbia and China, she said that they are very good and getting ever better.

"Of course, I expect a new era of relations and mutual exchanges in trade after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement," said Brnabic. The prime minister stressed that the future of Zelezara (steelworks) in Smederevo is completely safe and that the owner of the company, HBIS Group, has clear plans for additional investments.

According to her, the next focus of the second round of investments in Zelezara Smederevo is energy efficiency and green transition. "They are also planning to make part of the steelworks run on hydrogen, the idea is that in the next few decades there will be no emissions of harmful gases. These are incredible things," said the prime minister.

Brnabic added that in the morning she had good meetings with representatives of Chinese companies, among others JD, which is the 52nd company on the list of the most successful ones in the world and which employs 520,000 people. She added that it is China's largest privately owned company.

"We talked about placing our products on the Chinese market through JD, as well as about promoting Serbia as a tourist destination," she said.

Brnabic noted that there are conditions in place for increasing the number of Chinese tourists because they do not need a visa to enter Serbia, and there are direct flights that will be extended to Shanghai in the near future. The prime minister recalled that she also spoke with the management of Shanghai Fengling Renewable, which is a strategic partner of Zijin, the company that manages the RTB Bor mine and smelter in eastern Serbia.

"We expect to start the green hydrogen project in Bor in the coming months, which is an incredible revolution for our green transition," said Brnabic.

She said she was surprised at how far China has progressed from 2019 to 2023 in the field of environmental protection. Brnabic said she informed the Chinese president about the cooperation with the BGI company and about the further plans.

"I think the future of our relations with China is in the field of artificial intelligence and biotechnology. We want to have the most innovative medicine," said the prime minister. She added that BGI has invested $850,000 so far in a scholarship program for our students.

"The conclusion is that we had a very good meeting," the prime minister said after the conversation with the Chinese president, which concluded her visit to China.

(Telegraf.rs)