On the 4th of December, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister of the Republic of Serbia Nebojša Stefanović made an official visit to our country by invitation of Minister of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic Colonel General Ramil Usubov.
Later on the same day, Mr. Nebojša Stefanović and his party visited the Alley of Honor and laid a wreath at the tomb and paid tribute to the national Leader, the architect and creator of modern Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev. The delegation also laid flowers at the tomb of famous ophthalmologist Academician Zarifa khanim Aliyeva.

At the Martyrs' Lane, the guests laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame Complex in tribute to the memory of brave fighters who sacrificed themselves for the sake of independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The delegation also visited the monument raised in one of the parks in the center of Baku in tribute to the great son of Serbia and famous scientist Nikola Tesla.

On the 5th of December, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Azerbaijan Republic Colonel General Ramil Usubov received the delegation headed by Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Minister of Internal Affairs Nebojša Stefanović.
Having welcomed the guests, the Minister spoke with deep satisfaction of historical friendly relationships with Balkan states including Serbia, joint courageous fighting of our peoples against fascism during the World War II, and participation of Azerbaijanis in the Yugoslavian guerrilla movement. Having emphasized that cooperation between our countries have moved to a new level owing to the special attention given by National Leader Heydar Aliyev to building and development of bilateral relationships, mutual visits of the Heads of our states, negotiations and signed instruments, Mr. Usubov noted that the Agreement for Cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Serbian the Field of Crime Prevention signed in Baku on May 13, 2010 has played an important role in building relations between the Ministries of Internal Affairs of two countries.

Further, the Minister told about the challenges our republic faced during the first years of its independence, chaos, anarchy and impunity aggravated by occupation of 20% of the national territory in the result of military invasion by Armenia and forcible displacement of over than 1 million Azerbaijani citizens from their native land. Mr. Usubov mentioned that only in the result of decisive actions taken in all spheres of public life including the law enforcement after the return of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev to supreme power on the insistence of the Azerbaijani people, his wise policy and hard and effective work done by law-enforcement agencies including the internal affairs bodies under his leadership, stability and public order in Azerbaijan were restored and criminal situation was taken under control, and shared brief information about efforts that are made today to provide persistent social and political stability in the country.

The Minister also touched upon the reforms carried out in the internal affairs bodies, integration of our country into Europe, adoption of new laws based on democratic principles to regulate police activities, a crucial role of a number of developed countries and international organizations in this work, and the importance of these laws enforcement.
The Minister mentioned improvement of police activities in accordance with the best international practices as one of significant changes in this regard and noted that about 8 thousand employees and servicemen took part in numerous training courses organized by a number of international organization in recent 10 years that had a positive effect on further improvement of the level of their professional training. It was noted that state-of-the-art IT solutions are used widely to take prompt measures towards any unlawful acts against citizens.

Mr. Ramil Usubov noted that both states hold to the same stance on fundamental principles of the international law and territorial integrity of states and expressed his gratitude to the Serbian delegation for the support given by Serbia to Azerbaijan in the issue of its territorial integrity and recognition of the genocide during the Khojali events by the Serbian Parliament.
Touching upon existing challenges, the Minister emphasized that effective prevention of main types of transnational organized crime like illegal drug trafficking, international terrorism, trafficking in human beings, illegal migration and cybercrime is always in the focus of attention in our country and is possible only with joint efforts.

Having expressed his gratitude for the official invitation and hospitality at the highest level, Nebojša Stefanović noted that relationship between our states keeps developing in all spheres in the recent years, emphasized that both countries faced similar conflicts and hold the same position on the global stage in relation to a number of problems and expressed their interest in further development of the cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the friendly state of Azerbaijan.
The parties also discussed a number of other relevant issues during the meeting.