Minister Zlatan Klokić met today in his office with Đorđe Milićević, the minister without portfolio in charge of coordinating activities and measures in the field of relations between the Republic of Serbia and the diaspora.

The topic of the meeting was the establishment of a working group to deal with the Memorandum on Cooperation between the Governments of Srpska and Serbia with the aim of strengthening the motherland and the diaspora.

The Memorandum was signed in Banja Luka in 2013, and after completing the task, the working group will propose a new Memorandum to be signed already in November.

Klokić said that the intention was to strengthen the cooperation between the Republic of Srpska and Serbia.

‘People in Serbia are not diaspora for us, nor are we from Srpska diaspora for Serbia. For us, Serbia is the motherland and provider of enormous support in the development of Srpska and its political protection’, said Klokić after the meeting.

Klokić commended the camps organized by Serbia for children from the Republic of Srpska and added that it would be good to have such camps organized together also in the territory of Srpska.

Milićević stated that these camps had been organized very successfully this summer in 22 Serbian local communities for around 5,000 children and announced that they would become traditional.

He said that a goal shared between the Republic of Srpska and Serbia was to strengthen and create stronger ties between the motherland and compatriots abroad because of the diaspora’s huge potential in terms of financial and human capacity.

‘Many of our people are distinguished professors, doctors, businessmen and they are all our best ambassadors. Let us use these people to lobby outside of Serbia and Srpska for our national and state interests’, Milićević noted.

Naturally, the meeting discussed current projects in the field of cooperation with the diaspora, future plans and potential cooperation.

Minister Klokić noted the importance of the Republic of Srpska participating in events related to the diaspora organized by Serbia, and vice versa, because Srpska and Serbia had the same diaspora.

Source: Ministry of European Integration and International Cooperation – SRNA

Photo: Ministry of European Integration and International Cooperation