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Serbia–Syria relations are foreign relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Syrian Arab Republic. Serbia has an embassy in Damascus. Syria has an embassy in Belgrade. Syria is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, while Serbia is an observer.
Diplomatic relations with Syria were established in 1946.[citation needed]
In 2008, Syria did not recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić visited the Syrian Arab Republic in May 2009 and met with Walid Muallem.[1]
On 13 May 2009, Syria's ambassador to Serbia, Majed Shadoud, reported that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad told Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić that his country continues to oppose the recognition of the independence of Kosovo. Shadoud quoted al-Assad as saying "Syria urges a political solution for the situation in the Balkans and the Middle East and is opposed to any kind of divisions in both regions, regardless of whether religious, ethnic or nationalist reasons are in question".[2] Syria voted against Kosovo's admission to UNESCO in 2015.
Serbs living in Syria are for the most part women married to Syrians, and the Foreign Ministry in Belgrade puts their number in the hundreds. Some of the marriages are the legacy of close political and economic ties formed in the communist era between the Arab world and communist countries like Yugoslavia.[3]
By the first half of 2013, 432 citizens of Syria had requested asylum in Serbia.[4]