On November 24, 2020, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), with the participation of the Business Council for Cooperation with Serbia of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and Russia’s Trade Mission in Serbia, held an expert online workshop on prospects for expanding cooperation between Russia and Serbia at present stage.
Welcoming remarks were made by Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia; Miroslav Lazanski, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Serbia to the Russian Federation; Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General; and Andrey Logatkin, Director-International Cooperation Department, ROSSETI PJSC. The speakers underscored the relevance and timeliness of discussing Russia-Serbia cooperation and expressed their hope for regular meetings in this format in the future.
On November 24, 2020, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), with the participation of the Business Council for Cooperation with Serbia of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and Russia’s Trade Mission in Serbia, held an expert online workshop on prospects for expanding cooperation between Russia and Serbia at present stage.
Welcoming remarks were made by Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia; Miroslav Lazanski, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Serbia to the Russian Federation; Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General; and Andrey Logatkin, Director-International Cooperation Department, ROSSETI PJSC. The speakers underscored the relevance and timeliness of discussing Russia-Serbia cooperation and expressed their hope for regular meetings in this format in the future.
Other speakers included: Dragomir Karić, Deputy of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia; Andrey Khripunov, Trade Representative of Russia in Serbia; Mihailo Vesović, Vice President of the CCIS of Serbia; Alexander Chepurin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of Serbia (2012– 2019), Independent Member of NIS Board of Directors; Dejan Delic, Director of the Chamber of Commerce and lndustry of Serbia in Russia; Professor Ekaterina Entina, Higher School of Economics, Senior Researcher at RAS Institute of Europe; Maxim Samorukov, Deputy Editor of carnegie.ru; Stevan Gajić, Political Scientist, Researcher at the Institute of European Studies in Belgrade, Visiting Professor at MGIMO; as well as representatives of Russian and Serbian business.
The event was moderated by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs. The workshop was also attended by Natalya Vyakhireva, RIAC Program Manager, and Milan Lazovich, RIAC Program Assistant.
The following discussion focused on the state of relations between Moscow and Belgrade at the present stage, the structure of the Serbian economy and Russia-Serbia trade and economic cooperation, the opportunities for bilateral cooperation between Russian and Serbian companies, obstacles to the development of further interaction, and the way the economic context of relations between Moscow and Belgrade is changing.
The general opinion among the participants was that the potential for economic cooperation between Russia and Serbia is far from being exhausted; it needs to be actively promoted, given the excellent existing framework. The experts pointed out the key areas for interaction in the near future that could give a new impetus to economic cooperation between Moscow and Belgrade: involvement of regions in the economic agenda, more active banking support for business projects, increasing the role of soft power, which contributes to the growth of interest in mutual products of the parties, as well as giving more attention to such sectors of bilateral interaction as medicine, military-industrial sector, educational exchange programs, and humanitarian cooperation.
