Statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Nikola Selaković

I think it is inappropriate to refer to the friendship and brotherhood of the citizens of Montenegro and Serbia in a statement, and then present the defense of a document whose malice towards the Serbian people cannot be refuted by any subsequent readings and explanations.

The lectures of the Montenegrin Ministry against the Serbian media and government representatives, because they exposed the true intentions of the adopters of the Resolution on Srebrenica and because they do not naturally perceive the content of that document as an "extended hand of friendship", are the result of serious political hypocrisy, and they have nothing to do with Serbia, but only with the internal problems of Montenegro, in which Serbia has not interfered and will not interfere.

On this occasion, I must most resolutely reject and condemn the phrases of some Montenegrin politicians about the alleged interference of Serbia in the internal affairs of Montenegro, because Serbia did not recognize Boka as an independent state, for example, but the Montenegrin officials recognized the unilaterally declared secession of Pristina in  the form of the so-called Republic of Kosovo, that is, they supported the most direct attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia.

Serbia did not pass resolutions on Montenegro when some citizens of Montenegro were stigmatized because of the war operations in Konavle, or when some described the Montenegrin national song "Gorski vijenac" as an apology for crimes against Muslims.

In the trial against Radovan Karadžić, that very same Hague Tribunal, whose verdicts the Montenegrin Parliament refers to, interpreted "Gorski vijenac" as the ideological basis of crimes against Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war of the 1990s.

Serbia, unlike Montenegro, did not send its representatives to events that glorify the killing and expulsion of Montenegrins, and Podgorica had its representative in Knin, at the celebration of the event which is undoubtedly the biggest ethnic cleansing in Europe after the Second World War.

But what is it that the Montenegrin Ministry of Foreign Affairs blames Serbia for? It was criticized for writing in the tabloids about Montenegro, and the local media, regardless of whether they were tabloid or non-tabloid, accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić of no less than an attempted coup in Montenegro, by saying that he did not know that the Montenegrin Prime Minister was coming to Belgrade for a meeting with the Serbian Patriarch, which did not even happen.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro hides behind the phrases about the non-existence of collective responsibility for crimes, which is absurd, because the Montenegrin parliament did not personalize its condemnation of the events in Srebrenica, by which, although claiming otherwise, it unequivocally tried to stigmatize the entire Serbian people.

All those words about brotherhood and friendship, about historical closeness and alliances, which are stated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, lose their significance when faced with specific deeds, and I have listed only some of them.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, which I am the head of, will strive to contribute to the building of good neighborly relations, strengthening the reputation of the Republic of Serbia and taking care of members of the Serbian people, wherever they live, but it is not and will not be a punching bag and a silent and fixed target for unfounded and unsustainable criticism of the Republic of Serbia and members of the Serbian people.