Minister Dacic meets with UNESCO Director-General on the margins of the 42nd General Conference

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Dacic met with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, on the margins of the 42nd UNESCO General Conference in Paris, to discuss the preservation of Serbian cultural heritage and deepening of cooperation with this organization.

Minister Dacic underlined that UNESCO was of exceptional importance for Serbia, especially from the perspective of protection of cultural heritage in Kosovo and Metohija.

He informed his interlocutor about the course of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, pointing to the attempts at rewriting history. Dacic also expressed full support to UNESCO activities and invited Director-General Azoulay to visit Serbia again before the end of her tenure.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay noted that Serbia's cooperation with UNESCO was on an upward trajectory and that her visit to Belgrade in 2019 had certainly contributed to that end.

She assessed that the role of Serbia - whose UNESCO Executive Board chairmanship was ending during the ongoing 42^nd General Conference - had been very important and positive in view of the fact that the chairmanship had been underway amid uneasy circumstances, with difficulties in reaching consensus on any issue, especially since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

She commended the work of the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Serbia to UNESCO, Tamara Rastovac Siamashvili, as the Chairperson of the Executive Board, and expressed thanks for the successful cooperation.