Marko Đurić appointed to a new position

Marko Đurić, Photo: Tanjug

In today’s session of the Government of Serbia, Marko Đurić he was appointed Serbian ambassador to the United States, Kosovo Online has learned.

At the same session, Đurić was removed from the post of director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, where he had been since May 2014.

During his tenure, he successfully carried out the political, diplomatic and protocol preparation for the meeting of the President of the Republic with 49 heads of State and Government. In close cooperation with the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for three years he participated in the implementation and creation of Serbia’s foreign policy agenda in the short, medium and long term.
His work biography of that period includes daily meetings, communication and cooperation in the resolution of bilateral and multilateral issues with diplomatic representatives of all countries and international organizations accredited in Belgrade. Đurić maintained daily personal contacts and cooperation with advisers and closest associates of heads of state and government around the world on issues of importance to the Serbian side. Among other things, he participated in the representation of the Republic of Serbia in various sessions of the UN General Assembly, sessions of the UN Security Council, the African Union, coordination of the Serbian presidency of the Southeast European Cooperation Process, Brdo-Brioni process, opening of negotiations between Serbia and the EU. organization and initiative.
He was also the head of Serbia’s negotiating team for Chapter 35 in the process of negotiations on Serbia’s accession to the European Union.

Author of the ZSO concept

Regarding the activities in the negotiations and dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić has been working intensively on these issues for the past eight years. As head of the Serbian negotiating team, in dialogue with the Provisional Self-Government Institutions in Pristina, he led Serbian delegations to a total of 221 rounds of negotiations in Brussels, with the participation of the EU and other actors. In all these meetings, he was an active participant and responsible for the political and technical preparation of almost all meetings and negotiations related to this issue at a high level.
Before the formal assumption of the post of Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija in 2014, Đurić was the Head of the Committee for the Implementation of the First Agreement on Normalization of Relations between Belgrade and Priština, part of the team of the President and Government of Serbia. It is interesting that Đurić is the author of the concept of the Union of Serbian Municipalities, which has become an integral part of the Brussels Agreement.

Capital projects in Kosovo and Metohija

He has been Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija for more than six years, which is the longest period that any of the state officials have spent in this position since the establishment of that institution in 1999. Marko Đurić was in charge of creating e implement state policy and is responsible for conducting all affairs of the Republic of Serbia in the most complex political and security conditions in the Kosovo and Metohija area.
He led a team that built and repaired 2,470 houses and apartments for Serbs and other citizens of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija: internally displaced people, returnees and people in social danger who, in cooperation with the Diocese of Raska and Prizren, totally or partially rebuilt 45 churches, monasteries and others. Sacred buildings of the Serbian Orthodox Church, for which he received the Order of King Milutin, one of the highest decorations of the church, on behalf of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of His Holiness Patriarch Irinej.
It should be noted that Đurić initiated and executed several capital projects of importance to Serbian interests in Kosovo and Metohija, such as the world’s only returnee settlement “Sunny Valley”, the “Paradise Spa” health and tourism complex in Banjska, the new maternity hospital in Pasjan, several new houses, health, nursery, school. Figures show that during the mandate, Đurić visited Kosovo and Metohija more than 150 times to speak with citizens, solve problems, and provide humanitarian and other forms of assistance on behalf of the Republic of Serbia.
It will also be noted that Đurić, who was performing his duties in Kosovo and Metohija, was illegally brutally detained and beaten by special forces from Priština.

Member of the delegation in Washington

Among other things, Marko Đurić was the head of the Serbian Government working group for the internal dialogue on the solution of the question of Kosovo and Metohija, during which he chaired more than 40 round tables on this topic, attended by the most eminent national experts from various fields and representatives. unions and social groups.
In September 2020, he was a member of the Serbian state delegation to the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations in Washington. Together with President Aleksandar Vučić, he attended the first bilateral meeting between the leaders of Serbia and the United States at the White House in two decades.
In addition, Đurić participated in the meetings and presentation of the Serbian state position on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija with the leaders of the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Germany and France.
It is also important to note that Đurić, in close cooperation with the President of the Republic, worked on the creation of a single “Serbian List”, the general political organization of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, which, gaining the trust of more than 90 % of Serbian citizens, joined the Serbian political representatives in Kosovo and Metohija.

Among the founders of the SNS

Regarding party activities, in 2008 Marko Đurić was one of the founders of the Serbian Progressive Party. He was in all the tasks of the party, from participating in actions, in stands, to putting up party posters.
As a graduate of the Belgrade Law School, together with Nikola Selaković, he is the author of the Legal and Political Analysis of the Draft Statute of AP Vojvodina, Member of the Legal Council of the SNS and Member of the Council for International Cooperation.
He participated in public debates, shows, stands, since 2009 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the SNS, and in 2012 he became President of the party. Since 2016, Đurić has also been Vice Chairman of the SNS Main Board.
He is co-author of the “White Book” of the principles of the SNS program of 2011 and, within the framework of international cooperation between parties, he is in charge of cooperation with political parties in the non-European area, within which he directed the delegations of Serbian parties in a large number of international party forums.

Father of three daughters

Other activities include Marko Đurić, 37, who has a law degree and, since 2011, an associate at the Institute for Political Studies in Belgrade. He was a deputy in the Serbian Assembly from June to October 2020. He speaks English and Hebrew, and speaks French and Russian.

He is the creator of the idea (along with Ambassador Aleksandar Ristic) for “Natalija Ramonda”, the official symbol of Serbia’s victory in WWI.

He is married to Andrijana Đurić and is the father of three daughters: Jovana, Milica and Đurđe.