7/15/2024
Postage stamps honouring the great diplomatic jubilee of Serbia and France
The Post of Serbia, the Embassy of France and the French Institute in Serbia presented the issue of commemorative postage stamps in honour of the 185th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Serbia and France.
H.E. Ambassador of France to Serbia Pierre Cochard and Acting Director of the Post of Serbia, Zoran Anđelković spoke at the event about the development and contemporary relations of the two countries and the importance of the philatelic issue for their further improvement and cultural cooperation.
Director of the French Institute, Stanislas Pierret, welcomed the guests to the "shared house". As he said, the former French Cultural Centre, now the French Institute, has been the foundation and mirror of good and friendly cultural and diplomatic relations between our two countries for decades.
Zoran Anđelković congratulated the French Ambassador, the citizens and the Republic of France on the national holiday, and then wished France much success as the host of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games.
"In Serbia, there is only one song of gratitude dedicated to one nation, one country, and that is France. In Serbia, there is a monument of gratitude to France", Anđelković said. He added that Serbia respects the fact that France also preserves and nurtures that tradition - in Paris there is a Monument to King Peter I and King Alexander I and the Serbian military cemetery of participants in the First World War.
"These are all ties that make us close. Today, the relationship between President Vučić and President Macron is one of the indicators of that closeness and friendship that lasts and that will last, and that is why, in honour of this and on the occasion of almost two centuries of diplomatic relations, such a beautiful postage stamp was prepared and it is a gift to the French and Serbian friendship", said Zoran Anđelković.
Ambassador Cochard thanked Director Anđelković and the Post of Serbia for the initiative to commemorate the diplomatic relations between the two countries, which go back to the distant past, to the 13th century, when the marriage between Helen of Anjou and Serbian King Uroš was concluded in 1245, and then when France was with Serbia, while after centuries of domination by the Ottoman Empire, it aspired to regain its independence, inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.
"On March 19, 1839, the first French consular officer, François Duclos, presented letters of credence to Prince Miloš Obrenović after a three-month long journey from Marseille. On September 30, Achille de Codrika takes over the full post of consul in Belgrade. In 1880, the consulate was changed to an embassy and Baron Michel was appointed as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of France in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. As of that time, the French embassy in Belgrade would exist without interruption, even when it was moved to Niš, then to Corfu during the First World War. Since 1930, the Embassy has been located in the same building where it is still located today. That building itself symbolizes the importance that France attached to these special relations. Today, on the same basis created from values that should always be highlighted, acquired and defended, we are building strong relations aimed at our common future within the European Union", said Ambassador Cochard.
Director Anđelković presented Ambassador Cochard and Director Pierret with a gift issue of the commemorative postage stamp.
The philatelic issue contains a commemorative postage stamp depicting Prince Miloš Obrenović and King Louis-Philippe I, printed in sheets of 10 stamps with a vignette. On the vignette are the Monument of Gratitude to France at Kalemegdan, the work of Ivan Meštrović, and the building of the Embassy of the Republic of France in Belgrade, while the sculpture Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, on the building of the French Embassy, is the motif on the envelope of the issue.
The issue was prepared in cooperation with the Embassy of France in Serbia, while the artistic processing of the issue is the work of Marija Vlahović, the creator of stamps for the Post of Serbia.