Vučić: I don't expect Kurti to form CSM; "As president, I will not sign recognition"

BELGRADE -- President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, addresses the public on the occasion of the continuation of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina in Brussels.

Source: B92 Tuesday, 28.02.2023. | 23:44

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FOTO TANJUG/ SAVA RADOVANOVIĆ/ bg

Vučić said that after a tough, and he believes, successful fight in Brussels, tonight he will respond to all "political and media manipulators who would trample on their own country for a small piece of power".

It's important that we talk

"Do you want to gamble? I'm not a gambler"

Vučić also points out that no one from the West threatens Serbia with isolation anymore.

"I spoke with Vincenzo Paglia, to tell the people in Serbia. He helped during the conflict in 1999, to resolve things peacefully. An intelligent man, I know that he also spoke with Milosevic many times. He still considers Milosevic his friend. They are with the Vatican. A powerful organization, and he helped Milosevic get in touch with Rugova. I remember as a young man, I thought I was the smartest, I didn't understand why Milosevic was doing that. However, then the Americans brought a different decision. That's almost what Paglia told me. Madeleine Albright came to the Vatican and asked him if Rugova could bear the burden of talking to Milosevic, and she was looking for some younger people to fight against Milosevic. Then the 'young lions' came on the scene, Thaci and some others, and they performed in Rambouillet," said Vučić.

"I mentioned that because I heard stories that they wouldn't bomb us at the end of the 20th century. They ended up bombing us. I think we should have stopped after 7 or 10 days, we would have had less dead and less damage. Now, in the midst of the war between Ukraine and Russia, and the offensives of both will soon follow. I see that everyone is in a hurry, something is happening. Well, both of them are going on the offensive, in such conditions, everyone is in a hurry to make results, and no one asks you anything. They told me that they have a war in Europe, and that they tell us that we will lose everything if we don't behave," he said.

"Others say that the West has its own interests here in Serbia, that it will not withdraw. And they withdrew from Russia in 7 days, all their companies and banks were removed. BASF, the largest chemical giant in the world, is laying off thousands of people. All of this they are able to do because they are at war, and they won't do it to us? Since we are very important, do you want to gamble? I am not a gambler, I worry about every dinar and every person in this country. I will not deal with whether the West is bluffing or not," Vucic said.

"I don't expect Kurti to form CSM"

"I don't expect Kurti to form CSM. I said that 55 to 60 times in Brussels just yesterday. They heard what I said. That is the essence of what is missing since 2013."

When asked how the talks in Brussels look like, Vučić ironically referred to it as "dearest talks".

"Nothing nice, nothing nice. We talk in English, something comes out in Serbian... Kurti speaks Serbian very well, he was in prison until Koštunica and Miloš Jovanović released him from prison. You can see the signature here. This is how it looks when someone signs a document, and I didn't sign anything. And in Brussels, they say their opinions, we say ours, we don't agree on anything," said Vučić.

He adds that he is convinced that Kurti will not form CSM for a long time.

"When it is formed, then we will have to sit down and discuss all the issues, even the difficult ones. Kurti says that he will not implement what someone else signed, that it was a corrupted government at the time."

"As long as I am the president of the republic, I will not sign the recognition"

"I was told that there is no negotiation about it. I repeat for the fifth time, I will not participate in the implementation of some things. Here I repeat for the tenth time. I told Macron, and Scholz, and Lajcak. While I am the president of the republic, I will not sign either formally or informal recognition of Kosovo, nor its membership in the UN," said Vučić.

Nothing was signed in Brussels

"But the key issues concerning the Constitution of Serbia, I said unequivocally and in every place publicly and clearly. The strength of Serbia's position is precisely in that. And why do you think I didn't sign anything, what they said I was going to sign?" he explains.

"You have a statement, I thought the man was decent, but I was surprised in the Parliament, French citizen Miloš Jovanović announced on Instagram that I am a traitor who wants to sign the secession of Kosovo. Two days later, nothing has been signed in Brussels," Vučić points out.

"I do not want to discuss the recognition and Kosovo's UN membership"

"I want to tell the Serbs, I think it's important to talk. When you're at the negotiating table, they can't decide without you. So, either that, or we leave the negotiations with all the consequences we suffered in the nineties, such as complete economic disaster", he said.

"I communicate very precisely and say: Serbia is ready to work on the implementation of many things from the plan, but we made one clear, big, objection. I told that to Macron and Scholz in Munich and to all the big leaders. It is about the fact that I won't and cannot discuss mutual recognition, recognition and Kosovo's membership into the UN," he said.

The consequence of refusal is the blockade of European integrations

"The consequences of rejecting the plan are the blockade of European integration, only that it means the end of investments, they said the direct withdrawal of investments," said the President of Serbia.

"We currently have 80,000 people working in German-owned factories alone. They threatened a number of other measures, including that Serbia would become a pariah, isolated from the world," he said.

"Part of my team expected that they would come out with the announcement that Kurti is not ready for CSM, and I knew that it would not happen, but that they would maneuver, that there would be some balanced message. People say that we did not react in any way, and that we did not send any objections, which is not true," he states.

"Here, I have brought our answer, on densely typed six pages, around nine pages, look how precise and thorough our non-paper answer, based on international law, is. Read it and tell people if I lied to you. It was handed over to international representatives ", says Vučić and adds that it is a non-paper, and will not be published.

We haven't reached agreement

"It is important for me to try to tell people what we have been doing all these months, because it is not a matter of one paper and one meeting. Yesterday in Brussels we talked, we haven't reached an agreement and nothing more than that," said Vučić.

He said he always told the truth to people and never hid anything.