Dacic: The most important thing for Serbia is to preserve its sovereignty; I don't expect the EU and the US to change their position on Kosovo

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic, says that as a citizen and as a member of the Government, he is satisfied with how President Aleksandar Vucic is representing Serbia in the difficult talks with Pristina because, as he states, he knows very well from the many talks in which he participated how "diabolically hard" it is," Kurir writes.

Dacic says that the only important thing for Serbia all these years is to preserve sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"All these years there has been a hard fight for the defense of what is most important to us, which is our sovereignty and territorial integrity. The fact that the agreements here were not accepted by some from the opposition should at least be a measure of whether we have done a good thing or not. Those people have long lost all connection with the interests of Serbia because the only thing they are interested in is for everything to fail so that they would have some hope of coming to power. Each of them, who are always on television, had the opportunity to do something for Serbia and for Kosovo and Metohija as part of it. And what did they do? They ran away from problems; they even directly worked to the detriment of Serbia. Each of them should have done what Vucic is doing now, but they didn't have the guts to do it, nor the responsibility towards his country," Dacic says in an interview for Kurir.

Dacic points out that he does not expect the US and the EU to change their position because they recognized Kosovo, but it is good that they changed their position towards the problem itself.

"None of them will change their position on Kosovo; it would be stupid for us to expect that from America, Germany, France, or anyone in the West who recognized Kosovo. They are changing their attitude towards the problem, which is good and useful for Serbia. We made them change their attitude towards the problem because we had a strong argument because we were persistent, and patient, and, most importantly, we told them directly what our views were, repeated it countless times, and never tried to talk to them, and secondly to our citizens. We are completely open with them, it's not easy for them either, but they respect that. This has an effect, because Serbia, unlike the government in Pristina, is always a serious and responsible participant in the talks. When we have led to such a situation, then we are also looked at differently, the respect is great and that is why we are in a position to realize our interests, and that is the only important thing," he adds.

Dacic points out that Serbia has strong arguments and a position that Kosovo should not have a seat in the UN.

"We are now investing everything we can in creating the best solutions for Serbia and for our people in Kosovo and Metohija. We don't want anything to hinder that goal. At the moment, the overwhelming majority of the 106 UN members do not recognize Kosovo as a state, 84 do, and three states do not have a clear position. This is our strong argument in the talks, especially as an indicator of the justification of our position that Pristina should not have a seat in the UN", Dacic believes.

When asked how difficult it had been all this time to resist the pressures related to the non-introduction of sanctions against Russia, Dacic says that Serbia is protecting its interests, which are the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"That is our principled position and the position of the National Security Council, established last year. Serbia, without precedent, respects the principles of international law, that is, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of every state, including Ukraine, but we do not impose sanctions on Russia because of our interests, which, among other things, are the protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity," he says.

He adds that the relations between the Serbian Progressive Party and the Socialist Party of Serbia are at the highest level.

"The relations between our two parties are at the highest level, as befits the two largest parties in the ruling bloc and on the political scene in general. We are responsible people, Vucic and I have been in politics for a long time and we deal with it responsibly. We work together every day on very important jobs for our country and citizens," Dacic concluded.