Selaković: Serbia has strong leadership and all the prerequisites to preserve peace and stability

In a guest appearance on Happy TV, Minister Selaković said that the situation was actually dramatic not only in Europe and the wider neighbourhood, but in the entire world, and the events in Eastern Europe that began on 24 February have marked a change in the entire geopolitical and security architecture.

“These changes carry complete unpredictability”, stated Selaković and added that Serbia was exposed to pressures mostly concentrated on President Aleksandar Vučić, as well as that Serbia was one of the few countries that has had a very clear and principled position from the beginning as regards respect for international law.

Minister Selaković noted that in mid-May he attended the annual session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Turin and on that occasion he listened to lessons from a considerable number of ministers of foreign affairs of EU member states on respect for the territorial integrity and political independence of states as key rules of international law which, unfortunately did not apply in the case of Serbia.

Selaković added that one of the foreign ministers said that his country firmly supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, and subsequently stated that his country supported and welcomed Priština's application for membership in the Council of Europe.

“I asked him, what about the territorial integrity of Serbia, but he said nothing, after which we experience the ultimate hypocrisy and double standards when no country from the Western Balkans moves a single millimetre forward to European integration, and at the same time Ukraine and Moldova gain the EU candidate status. Within which borders will they gain that status, because when Serbia was to get candidate status, EU argued that they already had one Cyprus, alluding to the territorial problems in Cyprus, and they did not need something like that; however, today others are getting candidate status like Ukraine where, unfortunately, the war is raging, and Moldova,” said Selaković.

Minister  Selaković said that if someone promoted territorial integrity and sovereignty to Serbia as the supreme principle of international law, then he must know that this principle began to be ignored 23 years ago, and that it was seriously violated in Serbia 14 years ago.

Minister Selaković emphasised that Serbia strongly supported the territorial integrity of both Ukraine and Moldova and noted that Moldova has not imposed sanctions on Russia, but at the same time there was pressure on Serbia to do so, and that Serbia recognised the policy of double standards which, unfortunately, it was used to.

Selaković pointed out that the most important thing was to preserve peace in a situation in which Priština was continuing to make unilateral moves, and Albin Kurti was patted on the shoulder by representatives of certain Western countries.

“Serbia is a factor of stability, it did not respond to every provocation, and owing to President Vučić, every decision and reaction was carefully measured. Serbia is not someone who causes problems, but anyone who is monitoring the situation in our region must know that Serbia is not a punching bag and that it is ready to protect itself and its national interests when they are threatened and when Serbia is attacked. Anyone who wants to play with fire needs to know this. If someone wants to resolve problems peacefully, we will be his partner, but if someone wants to brutalise our people, he must be aware that he will not succeed,” Selaković said.

According to him, the wise policy of President Vučić proved to be correct, it enabled Serbia to develop economically and today Serbia is more reputable and militarily much more respectable, and Serbia has not threatened anyone.

The Minister said that the Open Balkans initiative, which was gaining more and more support, was also the result of the regional policy led by President Vučić, and that the guarantor of such policy was a strong and stable Serbia.

According to him, there is a lot of pressure on the five EU member states that have not recognised the so-called Kosovo, that pressure is greater than ever before, even greater than it was in 2008, and that action has been going on for a long time.

“It is up to us to nurture friendly relations with our friends.” They are under pressure and blackmail as  well. It's up to us to do everything we can to maintain the best possible friendly relations with those countries and to understand that it is not easy for them either to bear such pressure,” Selaković said, adding that it was Serbia's obligation to tell the truth so that no one would be allowed to manipulate the issue of Kosovo and Metohija, and to emphasise Serbia's commitment to the rules and principles of international law.

Asked about the situation in BiH, the Minister emphasised that Serbia respected the territorial integrity of BiH, including the territorial integrity of Republika Srpska as its constituent part, and that it insisted on respecting and consistently applying the Dayton Peace Agreement, of which it is a guarantor and signatory.

“We are of the opinion that any imposition of measures, decisions and sanctions is not a good thing. It would be good if the representatives of the three constituent nations and two entities come to an agreement, and any solution reached between them will be a solution acceptable to us,” said Minister Selaković.