Vucic: It is better to buy time than to give up on what you must not give up on

BELGRADE - If you are trying to achieve compromise but see that that is impossible and that you have no other way out, then you must buy time - even that is better than giving up on what you cannot and must not give up on, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday at a ceremony that marked the 182nd anniversary of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU).

In a speech, Vucic said he was afraid that 2024 - also an election year in many countries of the world - would be much more difficult and much worse for the entire world, including Serbia.

"I am afraid that year will bring us many more conflicts and much more unrest than last year and 2023 did. By that I mean any kind of jeopardy to our people in Kosovo-Metohija as well as in Republika Srpska and in many other parts of our region," Vucic said.

"Our way out is to insist on compromise solutions even though we know there will not be any."

"Even though we know that others, as well as those who want to decide about the future of the world, do not want them. Some say it is bad to buy time. It is bad if you have not tried to achieve compromise before that. If you are trying to achieve compromise but see that that is impossible and that you have no other way out, then you must buy time - even that is better than giving up on what you cannot and must not give up on," Vucic said.

"Regardless of the gravity of the problems we are facing and the magnitude and the strength of the pressure that will only grow in the period to come, today I can say with certainty that we must always aspire to compromise but that we must not give up on what is ours - we must not give up on international public law, our territory or our people," he said.

Even if we were to do that with all the promises they keep making to us almost on a daily basis, with all the pretty stories that sound attractive but always turn out to be just a charade in the end, we "would not get anything," Vucic added.

"Not even at tactical level, let alone at strategic level. That is why I am certain it is important for our country that we safeguard what belongs to our country and try to preserve peace and even hide under a stone sometimes in order to keep the future of our country out of danger, but wait for a favourable opportunity in the right sense of the word to come out before the world with the truth and justice, and get the world's respect for that," Vucic noted.

He said he expected next year to be the most difficult in the modern history of Serbia but noted that he believed a large part of difficulties and problems would come to an end.