Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic had talks today via a video link with OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

The Minister congratulated Mr. Abdrakhmanov on his appointment to this important post and underlined the importance that Serbia attached to the institution of High Commissioner, while maintaining a quality cooperation with it for years.

Selakovic stated that Serbia was deeply committed to the protection and promotion of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities who lived on its territory.

He underlined that Serbia was applying one of the most progressive laws on the protection of the rights of national minorities, and that constant work was being done to promote the institutional and legal framework and its implementation. Furthermore, the Minister stated that Serbia had always been open to the advice and support of various international organizations, but also ready to share its wealth of experience gained in the protection of minority rights.

The Head of Serbian diplomacy particularly assessed as surprisingly aggressive the campaign of certain Albanian politicians which aimed to internationalize the issue of Albanian national minority allegedly being endangered in Serbia.

Minister Selakovic emphasized that the state bodies of Serbia enforced the effective legal regulations towards all citizens in the country's territory in an impartial way, regardless of their national, religious or other affiliation, and that this would always be the case.

In today's conversation, the Minister informed his collocutor about the status and position of the Serbian people in the countries of the region and asked High Commissioner Abdrakhmanov to keep this issue high on his agenda.

Belgrade, 9 February 2021