The Mayor of Novi Sad, Miloš Vučević, is staying in the Russian Federation, where he is attending the 24^th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg from June 2^nd to 5^th. During the Forum, the Mayor held several meetings, and today he attended the plenary session at which the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, spoke.

- We are evidently rising in the historical vertical of good relations that we nurture with Russia as a country, and a glaring example of that is the excellent reception and atmosphere in which all delegations from Serbia were during their stay in St. Petersburg. I would also like to add to that very useful working meetings whose effects will be seen in the future. The Forum, which dealt with economic topics on a global level, contributed to bringing a lot of new knowledge to our country, and to turn some new acquaintances into fruitful future activities in our city. Attending the speech of President Putin, who praised his country's reaction to the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus, I can boldly draw a parallel and say that we in Serbia were up to the task imposed on us by this scourge and that, primarily thanks to President Vučić, and then the responsibilities of the citizens, we managed to preserve people's health and the economy as much as possible. In the region, we are constantly in the lead in the field of immunization of the population, and that was possible thanks to the procurement of vaccines from several sources, which enabled us to normalize life and economic activities. One of the indicators that the world is fighting the pandemic more and more efficiently is the holding of this Forum, which is not organized online. I want it to stay that way, to increasingly approach the normalization of activities, both at the local level and in the field of international activities. We bring a general message from the Forum that today, more than ever, it is necessary to start an intensive recovery of the economy and strengthen all types of cooperation - said Mayor Milos Vučević, who visited the stand of Nizhny Novgorod, the twin city of Novi Sad, as well as the Russian exhibition space of Gazprom Neft, whose headquarters in Serbia are in Novi Sad.

On the side-lines of the Forum, Mayor Vučević met with the Head of the Department for Foreign Economic Cooperation and International Relations of the City of Moscow, Sergei Cheryomin.

- I informed him that Serbia has crossed the threshold of 50% of those vaccinated, and that in order to help the progress of the region, it has provided free vaccination for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also touched on the challenges due to the terrible pressures that our country is suffering around Kosovo and Metohija, as well as the efforts of President Vučić to preserve the stability, economic strength and integrity of the state. We have received assurances that Russia will always be behind Serbia on this issue, especially appreciating the fact that our country is the only one in Europe that has not imposed sanctions on Russia - the Mayor emphasized.

The International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg brings together heads of state, political leaders, prime ministers, ministers, governors, directors of leading Russian and international companies, as well as the world's most influential media houses. The goal of this year's gathering is to support a dialogue aimed at strengthening relations between countries, business circles and companies, as well as to discuss the challenges facing the world economy during the current pandemic.