Vucic: Serbia must engage in talks, maintain military neutrality

BELGRADE - Serbia must engage in talks and dialogue about Kosovo-Metohija, otherwise it will be trampled underfoot, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in the parliament on Thursday during a debate on a government report on the Belgrade-Pristina talks, and noted that Serbia must pursue a responsible policy and maintain its military neutrality.

Vucic said this in response to We Must/Together for Serbia whip Nebojsa Zelenovic, who said Serbia's military neutrality and its position on Russia sanctions were untenable.

It is also important to avoid a frozen conflict and head towards compromise, Vucic said.

It is important that Serbia maintains its military neutrality because there is something that is in the people's souls and cannot be taken away from them, he said.

Commenting further on Zelenovic's remarks, Vucic said that he, too, had said there was an idea of the so-called Kosovo joining NATO.

"Unfortunately, such danger does exist, I said that," Vucic noted, and added that NATO member states were no longer willing to listen to anything about Serbia's territorial integrity even though they knew what they had done to Serbia.

That is hypocritical because they are protecting the territorial integrity of Ukraine after violating the territorial integrity of Serbia, he said.

This "perfectly precise and accurate" parallel is the biggest reason behind their objections, he said.

He also noted that the best possible solution for Serbia would be sought despite an increasingly difficult situation.

Earlier, Vucic told MPs that, in case the issue of UN membership for the so-called Kosovo arose, the Constitution of Serbia would be sacred to him and that capitulation and surrender were not an option and that he would always choose Serbia.

He also said he was as yet unable to reveal all details of a French-German proposal for Kosovo-Metohija, but that he would reveal all of its worst aspects for Serbia to make people aware of what the country was facing amid a "WWIII of sorts".