Djuric: We have exposed Kurti's disinformation systematically

WASHINGTON - Serbia's outgoing ambassador to the US Marko Djuric said on Tuesday Pristina's PM Albin Kurti had developed an "imposing capacity" for spreading disinformation about Kosovo-Metohija in the international community and that Serbia had approached that systematically and that it had a responsibility to expose that with facts and through developing capacities to fight disinformation.

"We have approached that in a very systematic manner. Every day, we submitted argumentation to the key addresses, the numerous offices monitoring the situation in the Western Balkans," Djuric told Tanjug in an interview.

"We have been able to formulate the argumentation in a manner and from an angle that were appealing to the audiences here," he said.

He said the Kosovo-Metohija issue and Kurti's actions showed the strength of a hybrid information war Kurti was waging against Serbia on a daily basis to divide Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija and portray their leaders as a criminal organisation and divide the Serbian public over the Kosovo-Metohija issue.

Commenting on Pristina's arms acquisitions from Western states, he said he believed everyone would be better off without militarisation of Kosovo-Metohija and that the Pristina authorities had no good intentions not only towards the Serbs, but all non-majority communities in the province.

"I think this is understood by more people today than it was perhaps three years ago," he noted.

Djuric also said that, with strong support from Serbia's president, government and other state institutions, he and his team had done everything in their power to build a political infrastructure in Washington for Serbia and generations to come as well as to forge ties with the US political class.

He noted that this was not only about material investments made to boost Serbia's presence in the US, but also about ties, contacts and a network of influence he and his team had created by working day and night, building a "solid foundation."

"To me, the word continuity is key, because what we have started in the past several years is producing certain short-term results as well. Some of that is visible, too. But the main results of our work and efforts here and Serbia's investment in its presence in the US should come over the medium and long term. That is where we need to demonstrate that we are a state," Djuric said.

He said successful attempts had been made to get the sizeable Serbian American community involved in these efforts.

"Our community in America is a big, big potential for all Serbs... We are talking about close to one million or one million people of Serbian ancestry living in the US today," Djuric said.