Turkish president Abdullah Gul is scheduled to meet Serbian leaders during his two-day visit to Belgrade starting on October 26 2009, and sign a number of bilateral agreements as Ankara and Belgrade seek to strengthen their economic and political relations.
 
Gul is the first Turkish head of state to visit Serbia since 1986. Relations between the two countries were strained after Ankara became one of the first countries to recognise Kosovo as independent after Pristina unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.
 
However, Turkish-Serbian relations took a step forward with the June 2008 signing of a free trade agreement.
 
The schedule for Gul’s visit will see him holding talks with his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic, after which the two will hold a news conference.
 
Gul will meet Serbian prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic, attend a Turkish-Serbian Business Council meeting and meet Serbian parliament speaker Slavica Dukic-Dejanovic.
 
Speaking before his departure for Belgrade, Gul said that he and Tadic would discuss the deepening of bilateral relations, as well as developments in the region and globally.
 
Gul said that a strategic partnership of the two states was a shared and achievable goal and that Serbia was playing a key role in stability, safety and prosperity in the Balkans, Radio Srbija reported.
 
Turkish recognition of independence of Kosovo was not directed against Serbia and should not represent an obstacle for the development of mutual relations, Gul said, according to Radio Srbija.
 
Gul said that the free trade agreement was important for both countries’ economies and would encourage direct investments from Turkey in Serbia, as well as joint projects by Turkish and Serbian business circles.
 
In an interview published in Turkey’s Today’s Zaman, Serbia’s ambassador to Turkey, Vladimir Curgus, said that bilateral political relations were "very good"
 
"Turkey is not only the biggest country in the region, but is also a very important country for us to work with. We believe that we can do much more together for the western Balkans, for the stability of the region and, of course, particularly for integration into the EU. Both countries, all of the Balkans, want that," Curgus was quoted as saying in the interview, published on October 25.
 
However, bilateral economic relations needed improvement, he said.