China-Serbia relations achieve milestones in 2024

China-Serbia relations witnessed milestones in 2024, with the two sides deciding to build a community with a shared future in the new era, upgrading relations from the comprehensive strategic partnership.

One example of successful collaboration between China and Serbia is a railroad from Belgrade to the north of the country, to the border with Hungary.

The railroad, mostly built by Chinese companies, has been operating for over a year, facilitating thousands of trains and millions of passengers.

Currently the trains only operate up to Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, but very soon they will travel to the Hungarian border - and in a couple of years to Budapest as well.

The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in May 2024 to Belgrade was another example of the ironclad friendship between the two countries.

Over 30 agreements were signed during Xi's second visit to Serbia in the past eight years. It laid the foundation for new milestones.

"2024 marks a year when we have started implementing a free trade agreement between our two countries. In 2024, China has become No. 1 foreign investor in Serbia. Chinese companies continue to participate and play a major role in our economic modernization. They play a significant role in our infrastructural projects, transport projects, energy projects," said Nikola Stojanovic, State Secretary of Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is not just economy that connects the two countries. They work hand in hand on many international political issues too, with those surrounding Taiwan, Kosovo and Metohija are on the top of the list.

"I believe that the year of 2024 will be recorded in history of China-Serbia relations. China and Serbia have established a community for shared future. Serbia has become the first country in Europe that has established such high-level relations with China," said Li Ming, Chinese Ambassador to Serbia.

Measures have also been introduced to boost tourism. Several more direct flights between Serbia and China were launched, including flights to Belgrade from Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

China-Serbia relations achieve milestones in 2024

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight