Vucic: Serbia will stick to its decision not to impose sanctions on Russia until it threatens its vital interests

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, said today that Serbia would stick to its decision not to impose sanctions on Russia as long as it did not threaten its vital interests because it preserved its policy, which had to be self-sufficient, libertarian and independent.

Vucic, responding to the member of the coalition "United" Borko Stefanovic, said that he knew that the spokesman of the Kremlin had reacted to his statement yesterday, and emphasized that it was true that we were paying the price in international relations.

"I have no problem saying that. I know better and I'm not prepared to say what the price is, because I think the price of the policy you're running is good as long as you can measure it and it doesn't cost too much. It costs a lot, but until it costs vital interests, we must protect our policy, which must be self-sufficient, libertarian, and independent. When it can't be done anymore, I will come out and tell the citizens," he emphasized.

Vucic underlined that he had been elected this time, because it was considered to be the path of an independent Serbia in accordance with what had happened to it in the past, and also in accordance with the interests we had in relation to Kosovo.

"No one can tell me that I work for the Russians or the Americans, and no one serious said that because I am only obsessed with our interests and Serbia. True, this topic is difficult for us, which we carry hard on our backs. I think things are going to get harder. We could not support the invasion of Ukraine, logically, because we respect international legal principles. I think in a political sense it was a big mistake that the west started with tanks, because it united the Russians, and they are now ready to fight because the whole nation is united by the story of tanks. What will be the consequences, I am afraid that the war will be much longer and our position will be much more difficult," he underlined.

Vucic emphasized that Serbia's policy had to be firm as long as it could and that the state would be guided by the interests of the state and the people.

Stefanovic asked the deputies not to speak harsh words and utter various qualifications because that would not help anyone in Serbia, nor the Serbs in Kosovo, nor would they be protected "if the Olympiad of mutual insults, harsh words, nonsense, and untruths continues ".

"We do not agree on any topic with the Serbian Progressive Party, but we will not allow Serbia to suffer and collapse, to bleed in order to gain political points on the Kosovo and Metohija. In our opinion, it is not a good and bad policy to brag about 350 days of not imposing sanctions on Russia. With such a policy, we have put Serbia in a more difficult situation, in our opinion," he stressed.

Stefanovic said that of all the countries of Central-Eastern Europe, Serbia had the lowest growth of 2.3 percent, while the average growth of the others is 4.22 percent.

"We have a decline in construction, agriculture, and industry, the highest inflation. We have a record public debt that has exceeded 30 billion euros, now it is already at 35 billion euros. We will pay 1.2 billion euros for interest alone, which is equal to social benefits, for children, students, employees, veterans, and displaced persons. The situation in Ukraine is partly to blame, but also bad politics and disastrous personnel in Serbia," he said.

Stefanovic said that it could not be, that due to the government's attitude of not harmonizing foreign policy with the EU, we had economic consequences, threats of informal sanctions, the possibility of investment stagnation, withdrawal of investments, termination of European funds, and European integration.

"Our position would have been better not only economically, but also in terms of foreign policy if we had done what we asked for on time, and we were not in favor of sanctions in international relations. We did not believe on February 24 that the conflict would last so long. But Serbia has isolated itself and is standing by its own continent and its own future," he said.

Stefanovic said that Serbia should form a Mixed Commission in which there would be representatives of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, universities and the Serbian Orthodox Church in order to create a platform for further negotiations.

"We are looking to harmonize foreign policy as soon as possible. We are not for the recognition of Kosovo's independence and we are against Kosovo's membership in the UN. The tragedy in Ukraine represents an opportunity to accelerate our development. We ask that the assembly be involved in defining the red lines," he said.

Stefanovic pointed out that by not harmonizing foreign policy, we were losing European allies.

"You can't go against your continent and your future," he underlined.

Vucic then said that Stefanovic had been manipulating the data.

In this regard, he said that it was true that the public debt would be 35 billion euros, but with about 70 billion euros of GDP, so it is much smaller than what was inherited when the debt was 15 billion euros and the GDP was 25 billion euros.

"I can't wait for our public debt to be like Germany's. In absolute numbers, it is 250 times. America alone has a public debt 1,000 times larger than Serbia, but also 400 times larger GDP. Public debt is not calculated in absolute numbers, but in relative numbers," Vucic said.

He presented the economic data that showed how much Serbia had progressed in the last 10 years, such as the GDP that had increased from 31.6 billion euros to 68 billion euros this year.