Palestinian Leader Expected to Visit Serbia

Nikolic met with Mohammed Nabhan, the ambassador of Palestine in Belgrade, and discussed the forthcoming visit of the President of Palestine to Serbia and the strengthening of economic cooperation.

The date of the Abbas visit has yet to be set. According to the Serbian President's office, Nikolic said that relations with Palestine are "on an upward trend in all segments".

The Palestinian ambassador said the "similarity of the fate and mentality [of the two peoples] represents a quality that should be cherished".

Nikolic and Nabhan agreed that cooperation should be improved, particularly in the fields of commerce and investment.

"We are attempting to bring investors from some wealthy Arab countries, which abound in oil, to Serbia," Nabhan said.

The ambassador added that investors from Palestine are especially interested in the pharmaceutical and processing industries in Serbia.

Belgrade has nurtured good relations with Palestine ever since the days of communist Yugoslavia whose leader Josip Broz Tito was strong supporter of Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO.

Yugoslavia recognized the State of Palestine in 1988 but it also re-established relations with Israel in 1991, and ever since then Serbia has balanced the two.

However, after Kosovo declared independence in 2008, under the Democratic Party-led government of 2008 to 2012, Serbia drew closer to Israel.

Israel was then seen as the closer partner as it strongly opposed Kosovo's declaration of independence.

Serbia still opposes Kosovo's independence, but the issue has lost some of its potency since Serbia and Kosovo in 2013 agreed to work towards "normalised" relations.