Vucic: Serbia ready to work on implementation up to its red lines

BELGRADE - In a public address following Saturday's round of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in Ohrid, North Macedonia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that, as everywhere else, he had spoken there about Serbia's red lines concerning its opposition to a recognition of the so-called Kosovo and the territory's admission to the UN.

"I said that today, too - that no one can impose a legal obligation on Serbia. That is why we signed neither what the EU has called an agreement nor the annex, but Serbia is ready to work on implementation up to the red lines," Vucic said.

He said Serbia was an internationally recognised state and that, therefore, it wanted no international legal agreements with the so-called Republic of Kosovo.

He said that, under the annex to the agreement, Pristina and Belgrade were bound to implement all commitments in an appropriate manner.

He said the parties had also taken note of the fact the agreement and the annex would become integral parts of the EU accession process.

"We no longer depend on Pristina's good will - that is a positive change in the negotiating framework - but on how much we are prepared to do," Vucic said, adding that Pristina had bound itself to carry out activities for establishing a Community of Serb Municipalities.

He also said he had not wanted to sign in Ohrid an agreement with the Pristina interim authorities because such an agreement would have resulted in a formal legal obligation for Serbia to agree to independence of the so-called Kosovo.