Vucic: The largest and most important countries, apart from the US, do not recognize Kosovo’s independence

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, stated at the World Policy Conference in Chantilly that Serbia is in a difficult position because of Kosovo, noting that the most important countries in the world, apart from the United States, have not recognized Kosovo’s independence.

“When it comes to Serbia, we are in a very difficult situation because of the Kosovo issue. This was the first war in Europe after World War II, your guests say, referring to Ukraine. No, we were attacked without any authorization from the UN Security Council. When I talk to the French and Germans, they tell me: Aleksandar, why do you still look to the past, turn to the future. I tell them that we are doing exactly that. You are much richer, but we are working and changing things. The last time you came to Belgrade you saw the changes. Can you go to Kyiv to my friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy and tell him: just forget what happened with Crimea in 2014,” Vucic said at the conference.

As he pointed out, the largest and most important countries, apart from the United States, have not recognized Kosovo’s independence.

“You cannot attack countries that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence. You expect us to do everything and make changes, but do you expect that to be normal when you take 14 percent of someone’s territory,” he said.

Asked what would make it easier for Serbs to move forward, Vucic said it would be easier for the Serbian people if someone said that Serbia’s territorial integrity had been violated.

“They mention France and Germany - you had consequences, you had discussions about who was responsible for what and which principles were involved. My question then is - if we say Russia violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity, how is it that no country in Europe has said that Serbia’s territorial integrity was violated? If someone said that, the Serbian people would accept everything more easily. Tell us whether this was done in accordance with the UN Charter. No one wants to say that, because great powers are never to blame, only small states are blamed, never the big ones, and that is the tragedy. That is why we are in this situation, I am not belittling Iceland and Montenegro, but this must change. Europe used to be the most influential in Africa, now China and the United States are there, as well as Turkey, whose fault is that,” Vucic asked.

Regarding the dialogue with Pristina and decisions made in Brussels, Vucic said he was openly told that due to pressure from bots on social media, the European Commission could not say anything.

“We had negotiations with Pristina in Brussels. I told the European representatives that we had fulfilled everything. They told me openly: Aleksandar, we have a problem with an army of bots and trolls, because if we say something, we will come under massive attack from those people and the European Commission cannot withstand that. I said: then that means you make your decisions to satisfy people on social media? That is how it goes, everyone says what people want to hear,” Vucic added.

Vucic stressed that Europe is lagging behind the United States and China in many areas.

“I listened carefully to all your panelists and guests, I learned a lot and got new ideas. I have to say that I see things a bit differently. As Europeans, we are losing many important battles and we always think we are the smartest and that this is the most beautiful part of the world. We underestimate others, we do not think we are lagging behind, we believe the world does not exist in a real legal sense and we think everything important happens on European soil. We are not only lagging behind the United States in robotics and artificial intelligence, but also China. We believe, wrongly, that we have moral and other superiority over others, which is not true. It is like when the Western Roman Empire did not understand what was happening on its borders and then collapsed. I do not believe Europe will collapse, but by 2100 we will make up 5.8 percent of the world’s population,” Vucic warned.

He emphasized that he is not optimistic about the overall future Europeans are building.

“I do not believe we can do much on our own, we belong to Europe, we will share the same fate, but I am not very optimistic about the overall future we are building, and I will tell you why. First - China is more diligent than us, more thorough, more committed, they have the tiger’s eye, they are ready to outpace everyone in the world, we are not. Look at their working hours, unions, what about digital laziness in Europe. We cannot compare ourselves with China. We can lie to ourselves. In that way, the same results cannot be achieved. We have become dependent on social media. We are only flattering ourselves,” Vucic said.

As he added, a change of administration in the United States will not significantly change that country’s relations with Europe, while regarding solutions to Europe’s disunity, Vucic said that it is necessary to start from strategic solutions.

“I do not believe in that unity. The approach of Ursula von der Leyen is more realistic. A change of administration in the United States will not change relations with Europe much. I do not know what Europe will do, if you ask me about solutions, I am not as smart as your previous guests. I can see who made mistakes, what should have been done differently, but honestly I do not see big solutions. If you ask us as a small country, my country is important to me, but from your perspective, it is not. We must start with strategic solutions, be open to change, because if everything comes down to lecturing others about moral superiority, then I would ask if there is anyone in this room who believes that Romania or Bulgaria were in a better condition in 2007 than Serbia. Everything has changed. I do not believe anyone will adopt my ideas or those of Edi Rama,” Vucic concluded.