Vucic: I will do all I can to bring Trump to Serbia

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday evening he would do everything in his power to bring US President-elect Donald Trump to Serbia.

Speaking to Pink TV, Vucic said he would "try to do something about that" and that he had built a good relationship with the previous Trump administration.

He also said that, in a few years' time, the entire world would have problems with electricity and gas supplies due to the war in Ukraine and that, for that reason, Serbia was not breaking off its ties with the East and was also trying to rely increasingly on its own power generation capacities.

"That is why we are working with UGTR and Hyundai on large solar panels. That is why we are embarking on (the) Bistrica (hydropower plant project)," Vucic said.

Commenting on the global situation, Vucic said a war was "already here."

Quoting a famous historian who once said that "the train has left the station and cannot be stopped anymore," Vucic added that Germany had already begun cleaning up its bomb shelters.

He noted that Trump's inauguration was still two months away and that he was unsure Trump was able to stop the war in Ukraine.

"Many people have been killed in Russia. (Russian President) Vladimir Putin feels an obligation towards those people to accomplish all the objectives in Ukraine and will not back down. I know him. On the other hand, some other people think he can hardly wait to be given the pinky finger of their hand and to accept that with delight, and that some kind of peace deal will be signed. That is not going to happen," Vucic said.

He said he would like to see a truce and added that he had insisted on that.

"And then, like I told him everything I think, (Ukrainian) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said to my face in Budapest in a clear manner that he does not favour a truce and that it might benefit someone else. I told him: 'I think it would benefit you.'"

He added that, in discussions with the Russian side, he had realised that they did not want a truce either.

"I think truce is the only hope, the only chance for the whole world," Vucic concluded.