The President of Turkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is visiting Serbia today. Erdoğan arrived in Belgrade last night, where he was welcomed at Nikola Tesla airport by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who will be his host during the visit.
Following Erdoğan’s arrival, Vučić wrote on Instagram that his visit is a new opportunity to strengthen the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries. According to the visit’s program, at 11:00 AM, a formal welcome ceremony will be held in front of the Palace of Serbia, followed by a meeting between the two presidents at 11:20 AM.
At 12:05 PM, the fourth session of the High Council for Cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Turkiye, led by Presidents Vučić and Erdoğan, will take place. The signing ceremony for agreements, attended by both presidents, will be held at 1:00 PM, followed by press statements from the Presidents of Serbia and Turkiye at 1:10 PM.
At 4:00 PM, a Serbia-Turkiye business forum will be organized at the Hyatt Hotel, with Presidents Vučić and Erdoğan also participating.
The forum will bring together representatives from sectors such as transportation and infrastructure, energy, tourism, finance, and the textile industry, announced the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to Presidents Vučić and Erdoğan, the forum’s participants will be addressed by the President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Marko Čadež, and the President of Turkiye’s Foreign Economic Relations Board, Nail Olpak. After the plenary session of the forum, bilateral discussions between businesspeople are planned.
According to the available data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Turkiye is Serbia’s fourth-largest import partner and 14th-largest export partner in the first half of this year. In the first half of 2024, the total trade in goods with Turkiye amounted to 1.3917 billion euros. During that period, exports amounted to 416.9 million euros, an increase of 61.6% compared to the same period in 2023, while imports reached 974.9 million euros, marking a 10.7% increase compared to the same period last year.
Data from 2023 shows that 6,965 business entities in Serbia are engaged in trade with Turkiye. According to the Business Registers Agency, there are 820 active business entities in Serbia with majority ownership by Turkish citizens or legal entities registered in Turkiye. Data from the National Bank of Serbia shows that Turkish investments in Serbia amounted to around 344.1 million euros from 2010 through the second quarter of 2024.
Vučić and Erdoğan last met in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Erdoğan last visited Serbia in September 2022, and before that in October 2019, when the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries was celebrated.
The Turkish president also visited Serbia in 2017, when he and President Vučić visited Novi Pazar. Vučić visited Turkiye in 2018, 2021, and 2022. Erdoğan arrives in Serbia from Albania, where he met with the Prime Minister of that country, Edi Rama.
(B92, 11.10.2024)
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