Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will visit Belgrade from Dec. 28-29 to strengthen economic ties. Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Economy Minister Mustafa Elitaş, Health Minister Mehmet Müezinoğlu and Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım are also expected to be in attendance. Apart from bilateral meetings with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, the two prime ministers will also chair the Turkish-Serbian Business Forum in Belgrade on Dec. 28 with the participation of more than one hundred Turkish businessmen and investors. PM Davutoğlu and his delegation will also visit the Sandžak region of Serbia and the city of Novi Pazar, in southern Serbia, on Dec. 29.

Davutoğlu's visit is the first since 2013, when remarks made by then-Prime Minister Erdoğan on Kosovo led to estrangement between the two countries and postponement of the Turkey-Serbia-Bosnia-Herzegovina trilateral mechanism.

Davutoğlu's visit is an important step in bilateral relations. In a recent visit of the Serbian Ambassador Danilo Vucetic to Ankara, the ambassador said that PM Davuoğlu's visit points to the continuation of high level talks between the two countries, making it important.

Reiterating that this visit was planned at the start of 2015, Vucetic said that those plans could not be realized due to the elections in Turkey. "Mr. Davutoğlu is one of the first countries to visit Serbia after the formation of the government," he said. "The economic dimensions of our relations will be emphasized in the visit. Certainly the two prime ministers will discuss political, cultural and bilateral issues, which include the migrant crisis as well as EU relations. Most importantly, the Turkish-Serbian Business Forum will be co-chaired by the prime ministers and this could be a milestone for economic relations between our countries," Ambassador Vucetic added.