BELGRADE, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Economic cooperation between Serbia and Australia can be expanded, with Serbian diaspora in that country remaining their biggest "bridge of cooperation," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Friday.
During her official visit, Bishop met newly-elected Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and the Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic. It was the first visit of an Australian FM to Serbia after 30 years.
During her meeting with Brnabic, Bishop praised Serbian progress in European integration and said that the Australian government supports efforts to open more accession chapters with the European Union as soon as possible.
The two agreed that "in future the two sides should work more on joint projects that give good results such as project Jadar." It refers to one of the largest lithium deposits in the world conducted by company Rio Tinto in Loznica, a city in west Serbia.
"At the meeting it was confirmed that Serbian diaspora in Australia represented one of the most important cooperation bridges of the past as well as for the future and that more attention should be directed to it by organizing different activities," the government release reads.
According to the 2011 census in Australia around 70,000 people of Serbian ancestry or Serbian-born were registered mostly in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and represent a large diaspora community in that country.
Brnabic told Bishop that there is a mutual interest to strengthen bilateral ties in the areas of economy, culture and education, the government stated.
Bishop and Dacic agreed that there is a need to deepen and expand the specter of economic cooperation in areas such as exploitation of mines, investments, agriculture and tourism, along with cooperation in culture, sports and other fields.
"The two sides have expressed interest for the simplification of the procedure for applying for Australian visas for Serbian citizens," the ministry of foreign affairs of Serbia stated in a press release.
