Vucevic: Defending Serbia's sovereignty to be our biggest challenge

BELGRADE - Serbia's PM Designate Milos Vucevic said on Wednesday the new government would immediately face serious and far-reaching foreign policy challenges, and added that defence of Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity - the fight for Kosovo-Metohija - would be the biggest challenge in the coming period.

"These days, there is quite an evident intent to once again trample international law and Serbia's sovereignty underfoot and get Pristina into the Council of Europe as a member. Such treatment of our country has once again confirmed there is no 'sui generis case' whatsoever when it comes to the unilaterally declared false state in the territory of our southern province," Vucevic said in the parliament, presenting his programme.

Since 2007, the term "sui generis" has been used widely by those who are trying to tear our country apart and take it away from us, Vucevic said.

He noted that the Serbs were being denied the same rights that were "recognised and protected for all other peoples living in the same or directly adjacent territories," he said.

In addition to being another violation of international law, CoE admission for secessionists would be "a de facto reward for persecution, systematic disenfranchisement and oppression against Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija," Vucevic said.

Serbia will be forced to react adequately in case Pristina's CoE membership becomes certain, he said.

"It is quite clear that, in this situation, Serbia is a victim of a political response of a part of the collective West to the situation in Ukraine, but this also sends clear messages to Serbia as a candidate for full EU membership about its EU integration perspectives, which the Government of Serbia will also have to treat as a new fact," Vucevic said.

He said that, although its chances were not high, the government would do everything in its power to keep the self-declared "Kosovo" from joining the CoE.

"In view of all of the above, Belgrade will remain committed to dialogue with Pristina in case it turns out the process can result in anything productive that would contribute to peace and stability in the region," Vucevic said.

He noted that as many as 494 ethnically motivated attacks against Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church had been registered in Kosovo-Metohija since 2021, compared to 669 such attacks a nine-year period preceding Albin Kurti's rise to power.