Vucic: We are paying high price due to geopolitical situation

BELGRADE - Due to the overall geopolitical situation, Serbia is paying a high price, and the country is in an extremely difficult situation through no fault of its own, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday evening.

In a public address, Vucic said Kosovo-Metohija and developments in the province as well as proposed Council of Europe membership for the so-called Kosovo were the most significant topic.

"This is about the overall pressure on Serbia and the Serbs, above all, due to our military neutrality, our attitude to the Ukraine conflict and Serbia's position of condemning an attack on a sovereign country without joining the sanctions on Russia. The third reason, which is related to both of the previous two reasons, is that Western countries are under great pressure due to the advance of Russian forces and their own insecurity about how the war will end, and are also under pressure from Moscow's potential future policies that will be based on what is often referred to as the Kosovo precedent," Vucic said in the Palace of Serbia.

Speaking about the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, Vucic said there had been 494 ethnically motivated attacks on Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church since the advent of Pristina's PM Albin Kurti in 2021.

He said Western "sanctions" against Pristina included silence about its ban on goods from central Serbia and invitations to "absolutely all" international fora.

"There is not a single international forum that they have not been invited to and have not attended," Vucic said, adding that Pristina had been "punished" with visa liberalisation as well as a promotion of its status in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on March 24, "the date of the start of the NATO aggression on Serbia."

The "punishment" for Pristina also includes a vote on its membership in the CoE, he said.

"We know our position, which opposes their interests, because we do not support an independent Kosovo. There is no room to moan, but there is room to fight," Vucic said, noting that establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities was one of Pristina's outstanding commitments.

He said CoE rapporteur Dora Bakoyannis had abruptly changed her opinion about the so-called Kosovo's membership in the organisation after receiving a phone call.

She gave up on the demand that Pristina must first implement a Community of Serb Municipalities, Vucic said.

"She abruptly regretted having been very firm and strong and then she remembered that a Community of Serb Municipalities is not important, and then that (land) expropriation is not important either," he said.

"I know well who ordered you to give up on principles and to act in that way. Shame on you. Only some of the people in the international arena have a spine, and some people have nothing," Vucic said in a message to Bakoyannis.

He also said Western plans to table a Srebrenica genocide resolution in the UN General Assembly on April 27 were aimed at punishing the Serbs for their freedom-loving and independent policy.

"It is a difficult situation for us because we will have the collective West against us, plus a significant number of Islamic countries. They will say it is not aimed against anyone, but I am telling you straight away - they are lying, and they know they are lying," he said.

"There is nothing on Earth that makes you more proud and gives you more dignity than leading a beautiful country like Serbia in a sovereign and freedom-loving way. Therefore, we will fight," Vucic said.