The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, said on Friday that Serbia is not anyone’s extended hand, as some accuse it, but a country that conducts an independent and sovereign foreign policy, guided by its state and national interests.
Whose extended hand were we on March 27th, 1941 when we refused to join the Hitler Pact, in 1948 when we said ‘no’ to Stalin, condemned the military intervention in Czechoslovakia, the war in Vietnam or the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Dacic asked at the New Year’s reception for members of the diplomatic corps, the media in the region reports.
At the same time, Dacic asked whose extended hand was Pristina, when for 10-11 years it has not repented for not implementing the Brussels Agreement, whose guarantor is the European Union (EU).
Dacic‘s Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) has been a coalition partner of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for more than a decade. In the early parliamentary elections on December 17th last year, it won an unexpectedly small number of votes – 6.6 percent, which will bring it only 18 mandates in the 250-seat parliament.
”Maybe this is the last chance to see each other in this capacity and I want to say that Serbia is no one’s extended hand, except for its people and state, and that hand will not sign anything that is to the detriment of the Serbian people, but will fight for peace and respect for the principles of international law,” noted Dacic.
He stressed that Serbia “will not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo, neither explicitly nor implicitly, nor will it agree for it to become part of the United Nations (UN)“.
Full membership in the EU, he added, remains a strategic priority for Serbia, which is ready to continue the process of comprehensive reforms.
Speaking about cooperation in the region, Dacic pointed out that stability and good neighborly relations are important for Belgrade, despite the complex and burdensome problems of the past, BHRT writes.
E.Dz.
