The President of Serbia had two messages on Wednesday for his country’s neighbours – he said Belgrade would continue to help Republika Srpska (RS), the Serb-dominated entity in Bosnia, in accordance with the Dayton accord, and he called on Serbia's people to respect the Croatian minority.

Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday that the Croats were the equal citizens in his country whom Serbia’s people had lived with and would live together with in peace and harmony.

Vucic met with the president of the Democratic Alliance of Vojvodina’s Croats Tomislav Zigmanov, on occasion of the second anniversary of the signing of the Subotica Declaration on the improvement of relation and solving the open problems between Croatia and Serbia.

They discussed the realisation of key initiatives and concrete infrastructural, cultural and educational projects which would improve the position of the Croat minority in Serbia.

Zigmаnov said that about two-thirds of the agreed projects had been realised, while others were still being worked on.

The two also welcomed the founding of the Croatian language department at the Philosophy Faculty in Novi Sad.

Vucic also met with Osijek Mayor Ivica Vrkic, an envoy of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in charge of missing people during the 1991-1995 war and told him Serbia “does everything in its power to find the missing people and discover what had happened to them,” a statement from Vucic’s office said.

It added that Vrkic mentioned new initiatives that could help to solve the problem, but the statement did not specify what they were.

Vucic said he would soon appoint his special envoy who would cooperate with the state Commission on missing people.

He sent his regards to Grabar-Kitarovic and invited her to visit Serbia shortly.

In a separate meeting with Serb political representatives from Bosnia, the leaders of the Democratic People’s Alliance, the coalition partner of the RS leader Milorad Dodik, Vucic said that the peace and stability in Bosnia were crucial for the whole region.

He added that on top of common work on protecting the language, culture and the national alphabet with the leaders of the RS, the economic support to its people and their important future projects would also be a part of cooperation.

Vucic said it was important that all political forces in RS achieved a consensus on the entity's future and very close relations with Serbia.