Okamura: We support Serbia's full EU integration, we want to deepen cooperation

BELGRADE - Czech Parliament Speaker Tomio Okamura said on Thursday in Belgrade his country supported Serbia's full EU integration and that he wanted Czechia and Serbia to deepen cooperation and work on advancing their relations.

"It was confirmed that we have friends in Serbia, and we confirmed that we hold similar positions. We exchanged views on European integration and I said we support Serbia's full integration in Europe and European structures. I also stated my opinion - that Serbia's European integration, EU accession, would certainly be interesting from that point of view, too, and that it would strengthen the voice of states pursuing sovereign policies based on their own interests and on a policy of all azimuths," Okamura told reporters after a meeting with Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic.

That is also the policy of the new Czech government, he added.

"Unlike the previous government, we are not pursuing an ideological policy and, for that very reason, we want to cooperate with all states, so that would be beneficial to our citizens," Okamura said, adding that the meeting with Brnabic had been excellent.

"I told Ms President of the National Assembly that we see Serbia as one of the closest partners, one of the closest nations, with which we must and want to cooperate also at European level," Okamura said.

He said his government supported Serbia when it comes to EU accession.

"We exchanged views on Ukraine, but from the perspective of EU accession, because Serbia is interested in European integration. But there are opinions that Ukraine should have more favourable, more lenient conditions, and it could be said that is at the expense of Western Balkan countries. To us, that is unacceptable because we disagree with Ukraine having more favourable conditions compared to the Western Balkan countries, which have been working on that long and hard. That means Serbia has our support on that, too - these things should be approached in a fair and just way," Okamura noted.

He added that he had been one of the first politicians to extend an apology for the 1999 NATO aggression on the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which Serbia was a part of.

"I stand by the same position today. Also, at the meeting I shared my position that, had I been a political representative of Czechia at the time, I would not have recognised Kosovo," Okamura said.

He added that he and Brnabic had agreed to deepen cooperation and work on advancing the bilateral relations.