Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic participated today via video link in the Ministerial Meeting of the Council of Europe and on that occasion stated that Serbia was a staunch supporter of the ideas of multilateralism, and emphasized the importance of dialogue and cooperation between member states.

Selakovic pointed out that the Council of Europe should achieve greater unity among the member states in order to safeguard the shared values and principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and to reaffirm itself as a single pan-European forum for inclusive discussion and cooperation based on the equality of its member states.

“Multilateralism is based on the respect for international law while the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty are the foundation of the international legal order”, the Minister emphasized and added that these principles were of key importance for Serbia, and also that the principles and rules must apply to everyone.

The Minister also underlined that Serbia was one of the members of the Council of Europe that had not violated this principle in any case.

The Serbian Foreign Minister stressed that, at this point in time, one of the main tasks of all countries was to protect the health of the population.

“Serbia takes seriously its role and obligations arising not only from its membership in the Council of Europe, but also from its deep commitment and adherence to the principles of equality, non-discrimination, solidarity and cooperation, which we were guided by during the mass vaccination campaign”, Selakovic said and added that Serbia had also provided assistance to the region convinced that this problem could only be solved in cooperation with others.

In his statement Selakovic referred also to the issue of the status of national minorities which would be among the priorities of the upcoming Hungarian chairmanship, emphasizing that our country was deeply committed to the protection of the individual and collective rights of more than 20 national minorities living in its territory.

“We have one of the most advanced laws on the protection of national minorities but we do not believe that the job is done and we continue to work steadily on the improvement of institutional and legal frameworks as well as on their effective implementation”, the Minister stated.

Furthermore, Selakovic said that Serbia remained fully committed to the enforcement of verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights and deemed it one of the principal obligations of all member states, and also that it supported the strengthening of the integrity and role of the Court. He stated that our country strongly supported the Istanbul Convention, which was the gold standard in the fight against violence against women and domestic violence, and recalled that Serbia was proud to be among the first countries to ratify this important international instrument.

In conclusion of his statement, the Serbian Foreign Minister thanked Germany for its successful presidency and wished every success to Hungary as the upcoming chair.