The President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said today at a press conference in Banja Luka that Serbia fully respects the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law and, accordingly, all the norms of the Dayton Peace Agreement, from which the Constitution of BiH was derived.
As he said, in accordance with that, Serbia respects the territorial integrity of BiH, but also the integrity of the two entities within BiH, as well as any agreement of the three constituent nations. He expects BiH to also respect the territorial integrity of Serbia, which, according to him, was not the case during the voting in the Council of Europe.
“We have good and fruitful cooperation with BiH and RS. We do not shy away from showing respect for the victims of all other nations, but that does not mean that we are ready to forget the Serbian victims,” said Vučić.
He notes that at the meeting in Banja Luka, there was talk of US sanctions on officials of the Republika Srpska, but also on people in positions in Serbia, and he emphasized that this is bad news for the Serbian people, wherever they live, and for which solutions need to be found.
“It is enough to look at who the sanctions were imposed against and to doubt the impartiality and objectivity of those who introduced the sanctions. Serbia believes that sanctions always produce the wrong effects. We consider them inappropriate and we will treat sanctioned persons as if sanctions do not exist. We will not apply them and we will by no means agree with those who introduced these sanctions. All persons under American sanctions are welcome here,” said Vučić.
He added that it is a difficult decision, because of which Serbia will surely suffer indirect consequences.
He stated that Serbia wants the best relations with all peoples living in BiH, and that it will not give up on the idea of an “open Balkans”, because it brings prosperity to all citizens of the region.
He points out that it is necessary to talk to people in Sarajevo about numerous initiatives, such as the construction of railways and roads on the Belgrade-Sarajevo route, and to continue working on improving imports and exports between the two countries, developing energy infrastructure and other projects.
