Source: Tanjug

BRUSSELS -- With the signing of the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), Serbia "entered a new phase in relations with NATO," said Ivica Dacic and Bratislav Gasic.

"Our neutrality is not called into question by this plan," Dacic, who serves as Serbia's foreign minister and deputy premier, told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

He said that "no one can change what happened 16 years ago when NATO bombed Serbia" - but that "it should not be an obstacle to building partnership relations in the future."

Stoltenberg, said Dacic, recently spoke with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, "so further development of relations with the alliance should be expected."

He said that he received guarantees from Stoltenberg that "no kind of Kosovo's armed forces will have access to the north of Kosovo,", recalling that the previous NATO chief gave similar guarantees.

Dacic said that IPAP "opens the possibility of cooperation between Serbia and NATO in many fields, including science, public diplomacy and participation in international peacekeeping operations."

"These, of course, are not combat operations," remarked Dacic, and explained that it means cooperation in rescue operations during natural disasters.

He said that NATO was "also important for Serbia because of KFOR and the support to the Brussels agreement," and recalled that the KFOR commander recently met with the Serbian army chief.

Dacic said that his meeting with Stoltenberg touched on many issues, "including relations with Russia and Serbia's role as chairman of the OSCE."

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"NATO's bombing no obstacle to cooperation" - FM