Monday's Encounter
Monday December 5th, 2016 with Boba
Interview with Serbia's Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic was on a two-day trip to Canada on November 14, 2016, where he had meetings with Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion and Immigration Minister John McCallum. Minister Dacic said Serbia wanted to move on from its troubled past and has no hard feelings against Canada, which went to war against his country alongside NATO allies in 1999. Canada joined the 78-day NATO bombardment of Serbia to support persecuted ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo, which has since formed its own country. Canadian CF-18 jet fighters dropped 10 per cent of the NATO bombs that pounded Serbia, including its capital, Belgrade. “The administration in Canada changed and everywhere in the world. We have to work with these new people, to find new friends.” Dacic also pushed for Canada to lift a visa requirement for Serbian travellers. He said the two countries also finalized an air travel agreement that will pave the way for direct flights between Canada and Belgrade. Monday's Encounter recorded the interview with Minister Ivica Dacic at the reception held in his honer at the Embassy of Republic of Serbia in Ottawa.