Serbian minister sings in Turkish at dinner with Erdoğan

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić sang a Balkan song in Turkish during a dinner in Belgrade hosting a high-level Turkish delegation led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan late on Oct. 10.

Erdoğan, First Lady Emine Erdoğan and Turkish ministers clapped along to the song “Osman Aga.”

The two countries pledged to boost economic ties during the two-day visit, which ends on Oct. 11.

“Together with Serbia and the entire Balkans, we want to take steps to resolve all problems,” Erdoğan told reporters in Belgrade earlier in the day, saying that Ankara planned to build a road between Serbia and Bosnia.

Erdoğan and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic signed a political declaration to create a cooperation body that would meet annually to coordinate joint projects.

The Turkish president expressed confidence that Russia would not object to a Turkish plan to transfer natural gas from its TurkStream project to Serbia.

“We do not want any division of the Balkans or that someone might see those countries as their sphere of influence. We oppose all those who want that,” Erdoğan told a business forum.

Some 70 Turkish companies do business in Serbia, and trade exchanges are expected to reach $1 billion this year. Erdoğan said they should target $5 billion and signed deals with Vucic to expand a free trade agreement to include sunflower oil and beef.