Vucic at the UN calls NATO's intervention in '99 aggression: What is the difference between the territorial integrity of Ukraine and that of Serbia

2022-09-22 09:01:12Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Vucic at the UN calls NATO's intervention in '99 aggression: What is
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said on Wednesday that his country supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, while criticizing the member countries of the United Nations that have recognized the independence of Kosovo, violating, as he said, the territorial integrity of Serbia.

During a speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations, immediately after the speech of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Serbian president said that the conflict in Ukraine is not the first after the Second World War on the territory of Europe.

"We demand a clear answer to the question that I have been asking for years to my interlocutors, the leaders of many countries - what is the difference between the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia that has been seriously violated and that many of you give it international recognition and legitimacy? I have never received a rational answer from anyone", he said, calling NATO's intervention in 1999 to end the oppression of Kosovo Albanians by Serbia as aggression.

The Serbian president said that his country "with patience and good will has been looking for a compromise for Kosovo" within the talks mediated by the European Union.

"It is a difficult process, it has been going on for more than ten years, but we see no alternative. It is better to negotiate a hundred years than to fight a day. I am convinced that we will reach a mutually acceptable solution based on compromise, because this is absolutely the only way to achieve our goal, which is to establish long-term peace as a prerequisite for a prosperous life for Serbs and Albanians in our region. We have already exhausted all other possibilities and, at least as far as Serbia is concerned, we do not dream of returning to the paths of conflict and bloodshed. The Balkan region cannot afford another conflict," said the Serbian president.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, declared in 2008, but both countries aim for membership in the European Union and have agreed to resolve outstanding issues and build good neighborly relations as part of this process.

The Serbian president said that Belgrade is facing hybrid warfare and "dirty" campaigns that want to present Serbia as a threat to regional stability, as well as the fact that Serbia "assesses that the policy of sanctions against the Russian Federation cannot bring results to anyone." .

Serbia is the only European country that has not joined the sanctions against Russia following its aggression in Ukraine.

The Serbian President said that the peoples of the Balkans have the capacity to continue coexistence in the future as friends and partners who have a common vision for membership in a united Europe, citing as an example, as he said, the fact that "Serbia and Albania, today have the closest and friendliest relations in their centuries-long shared history in the Balkan Peninsula".


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