Vucic: Our state was born here and has never died since

KRAGUJEVAC - As a people, without a state we would be in the position of peoples even larger than us that live in territories that belong to others and by laws made by others and are left at the mercy of the interests of others, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday in Kragujevac, central Serbia, at a ceremony marking February 15, Serbia's Statehood Day.

"The state was born here and has never died since, and without a state, without the principles it rests upon, without institutions and the mechanisms the economy, education and the health care system have been built upon, freedom would not be a word we live and live for, but a dream we die for without the hope of it ever coming true," Vucic said.

Faced with the consequences of a war in eastern Europe that we are not involved in and with pressures over Kosovo-Metohija, we can find our salvation in the fact that in the past ten years we have succeeded in doing the very thing our ancestors wanted - in creating a strong, independent, democratic and sovereign state that is capable of growing, developing and getting stronger while fighting and protecting its national interests, Vucic said.

We have no tasks more important than the one of treating responsibly what has been created by our own will, protecting and strengthening our state and not allowing anyone to jeopardise the essence of our existence and survival, Vucic said.

For that, we have no other guarantee than the state of Serbia, he said.

"We have no other guarantee for all of us in central Serbia or our people in Kosovo-Metohija, our people in Republika Srpska, Serbs in Montenegro or those living in many other countries than the state of Serbia itself, a democratic, sovereign and free state," Vucic said.