 On the occasion of the International Archives Day, 9 June, the exhibition Yugoslav-French Relations 1918-1941 was opened in the Archives of Yugoslavia. The keynote speakers were Miladin Milošević, Acting Director of the Archives, Zdravko Ponoš, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, and Philippe Sutter, Chargé d’Affaires of the French Embassy in Belgrade. Miladin Milošević greeted the guests and pointed out that the International Council on Archives was founded on 9 June 1948 with the objective of uniting the activities of archives all over the world, to facilitate exchanging professional experiences, to initiate, assist and coordinate international cooperation in the field of archivistics. The International Archives Day was established at the Annual General Meeting of the ICA held in Quebec in 2007, and it was celebrated for the first time in 2008 on the occasion of 60th anniversary of the ICA. He underlined the importance of celebrating this day and added that it was celebrated by the Archives of Yugoslavia, as a Category A member of the ICA for several decades now.
Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Zdravko Ponoš thanked the authors of the exhibition for “making it possible for the guests to learn more about a very important period in the diplomatic and general relations of Serbia and France that have lasted for almost 150 years”.
Among the documents concerning the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Ponoš highlighted the Treaty of Friendly Understanding between Yugoslavia and France signed in Paris in 1927, in order to, in the context of new Serbian commitment to European integrations and processes aimed primarily at full-fledged EU membership for Serbia, underline the Strategic Partnership Agreement between the Governments of the two countries signed in April of this year in Paris, during the official visit of the President of Serbia Boris Tadić.
Chargé d’Affaires of the French Embassy in Belgrade Philippe Sutter mentioned the successful and prosperous bilateral relations between the two countries and in that context also stressed the importance of the Strategic Partnership Agreement, expressing hopes that that document as well will find its place in some future exhibition of documents dedicated to Serbian-French relations. Sutter underlined that implementation of special relations envisaged by this document is currently under way.
Having stated that France decided to provide assistance in the field of education, Sutter said that it was in those very days that 30 new scholarship holders were to leave for France, and that Paris earmarked additional funds for teaching the French language, which all served to better prepare the young people in Serbia for European integrations.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by more than 350 guests, among whom were Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević and Princess Katarina, Princess Jelisaveta Karađorđević, members of the diplomatic corps, scholars and officials, representatives of state institutions, colleagues from most archives in Serbia, media representatives and others.
The authors of the exhibition and the catalogue are Nada Petrović and Gojko Malović Phd, historian-archivists in the Archives of Yugoslavia. The documents on display resulted from research in the fonds of the Archives of Yugoslavia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia. Also exhibited are the photographs of French diplomats received from Paris thanks to the cooperation with the French Institute in Belgrade.
The exhibition will be open on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until 15 August 2011.
PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE OPENING IN BELGRADE
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