On the occasion of the National Day of the Republic of Serbia and the Day of the Serbian Armed Forces, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Budapest held a traditional reception on February 18, 2016, which was attended by many guests from the Hungarian state institutions, diplomatic corps and military attaches corps, representatives of the Serbian community and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Hungary.
The Ambassador Rade Drobac welcomed the guests and enumerate the main results the country achieved in the past year, between them the opening of the first negotiating chapters with EU, in December last year. Ambassador pointed out that regional cooperation and improving relations with the neighbors represent the priority of the Serbian foreign policy. In this regard, Ambassador R. Drobac added that bilateral cooperation with Hungary during the last year continues to go upward. This is witnessed by numerous visits of senior officials of the two countries, open and friendly conversation on various issues, including minorities. He also stated that good bilateral relations is followed by the constant growth of trade and economic cooperation, and significantly improved cooperation between two countries in one of the largest infrastructural projects in the region - the reconstruction of the railway Belgrade-Budapest in cooperation with China. Ambassador emphasized that in the recent years so much has been done on both sides in order to resolve the issues that burden the minority communities, and underlined his satisfaction that the Hungarian side has taken concrete measures to address issues of importance for the Serbian minority in Hungary.
The reception was attended by H. E. Sándor Pintér, Minister of Interior of Hungary, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary was represented by Zsolt Csutora, Deputy State Secretary for the policy of opening to the East, who welcomed the participants and said that bilateral relations between two countries are at the highest historical level, and in this regard stressed the importance of further developing the strategic cooperation between Hungary and Serbia. Mr. Csutora emphasized that Hungary will continue strongly to advocate accession of the Republic of Serbia to EU, and that the priority of the Hungarian Government is the promotion of good neighborly relations.