(Seychelles News Agency) - Cooperation in the field of health and education remains among the top priorities for bilateral relations between Serbia and Seychelles, said the newly accredited Serbian Ambassador.

Aleksander Ristic, the new ambassador of Serbia to Seychelles, presented his credentials to President Danny Faure at State House, Victoria, on Tuesday.

“I talked to the president and was advised to look into cooperation in the field of health. We will continue our cooperation in the field of education,” said Ristic.

Ristic described education as “one of our fields of cooperation that has been proved to be very fruitful." He added that details about the possibilities will be discussed with the Seychelles’ department of foreign affairs.

“I brought some draft agreements and most importantly, I brought an offer for scholarships for students from Seychelles to go study in Serbia in the coming school year 2019-2020,” he continued.

The meeting with President Faure touched on education and health. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

Having Seychellois students study in Serbia has “not only connected our governments, ministries and institutions but also connected the two peoples of Serbia and Seychelles.”

“There were many people from Seychelles who studied in the former Yugoslavia which is now Serbia in our universities and came back here and continued developing their country,” he added.

Bilateral relations between Seychelles -- a 115-island archipelago in the western Indian Ocean -- and Serbia were established in 1977. The ambassador, who is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, told the press that during the past 42 years, the two countries have supported each other in international forums and had fruitful cooperation in many areas.

Talking about tourism, Ristic said that Serbia has a lot of interesting reasons for Seychellois to visit his country, such as city breaks in the capital, spas, mountain and ski resorts retreats. Furthermore, citizens of Seychelles do not require a visa to visit Serbia and vice versa.

“Seychelles is a fantastic place to visit and I will try to connect the tourism organisation of Serbia with its Seychelles counterpart to have more people from Serbia coming to this beautiful country,” said Ristic.

With both countries’ national airline being a partner of Etihad Airways, the new ambassador said that “we can work together and try to connect our two countries in an easier way than it is now.”