Vucic: Those who recognise so-called Kosovo have trampled UN system, Charter

NEW YORK - The order based on respect for the UN Charter and the law founded upon it no longer exists, and all countries that recognise the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo and have attempted to seize 14 per cent of the territory of Serbia participated in trampling the Charter, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the 81st UN General Assembly session on Wednesday evening.

"I agree that we need to restore trust in the United Nations, but I am less certain about the extent to which we can manage a transformation that has, in many respects, already taken place. The international system as we knew it has collapsed.

It no longer exists. Today we are witnessing the emergence of a new order increasingly structured around two principal centres of power alongside a growing number of strong regional actors with considerable political, economic, military and technological capabilities seeking to shape their own environments and influence broader global developments on their own terms. We are, therefore, entering a period marked by a more complex and less predictable distribution of power in which the risk of potential conflict is greater than it has been for decades," Vucic said.

"That is no longer confined to conventional armed conflicts between states. Confrontations are increasingly taking the form of economic pressure, technological restrictions, competition for resources and market cyber attacks, disinformation and attempts to influence other societies. Cultural and identity-based divisions are also becoming more pronounced, increasingly exploited for political purposes and further deepening mistrust among peoples.

The boundary between peace and conflict is becoming ever less distinct while the consequences of confrontation among global and regional powers increasingly affect even those countries that are not directly involved. For small and medium-sized countries, just like the Republic of Serbia, such an environment represents an enormous challenge. The space for independent decision-making is narrowing while pressure on states to choose sides is steadily increasing.

At the same time, disagreements among the most powerful actors are increasingly paralysing the very institutions that should be protecting all countries equally. The traditional system of international justice is seriously undermined whenever interests prevail over law and the same rules do not apply to everyone," he said.

"You will notice, dear friends, that today, with the exception of a few countries, everyone speaks of and invokes the UN Charter, the spirit of the Charter and the principles on which the world order that was in force until recently was based on. It is as though they want to tell us, 'never mind, it does not count - the fact that, in the past, we tore down and violated that Charter by which we opened Pandora's box, which is impossible to close - and today we would like, without consequences, to return to the future'. They would like to revitalise the observance of the very same principles that powerful and great countries trampled so brutally.

How many times over the past two days, from this rostrum, have you heard calls and appeals for observance of the principles of international public law, particularly when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, while the majority of those same countries shamelessly and recklessly remain silent about the fact that they themselves participated in trampling the Charter and destroying the foundations of the international public law system. And today they would, at any cost, like to return to those principles, now that they see that more powerful and stronger ones have resorted to the very same violations that they themselves carried out when they were the most powerful and the strongest. Here I am referring to all the countries that recognise the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo and, without any basis whatsoever in international legal documents, attempted to seize 14 per cent of the territory of the Republic of Serbia," Vucic said.

"To many of you this may sound like a distant past, but the wounds inflicted on international public law are becoming ever deeper and more severe. To be completely precise, the order based on respect for the UN Charter and the law founded upon it no longer exists. It was destroyed by those who tore apart the territories of other countries for the sake of their own political and economic interests.

They did so unscrupulously, recklessly and shamelessly. Do you know, esteemed friends, what was in fact the reason, the sole official and formal reason for the attack on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia carried out by 19 NATO countries? You will not believe it. They told us that they had attacked a sovereign, free and independent country in order to prevent a potential humanitarian disaster.

The humanitarian disaster did not occur, and I have still not managed to hear or see where a similar example has occurred anywhere in the world. The attack against the small yet free and freedom-loving country Serbia, of which I am the proud president, was carried out with the intention of finally destroying the UN order established after WWII, and of formally and informally confirming the dominance of a, at that time, unison Western world of the United States of America and Europe. Do you know which countries, dear friends, took part in decision-making in the UN Security Council to bomb an independent and sovereign country that had attacked no other country? Just to add, not a single soldier, not a single police officer from Serbia had set foot on the territory of any other country, and yet a decision was made.

I am certain that most of you, dear friends, who are among those best informed about world politics, no longer remember much of this either, and especially not the fact of who in the UNSC voted for that decision, or perhaps in the General Assembly. Do not even try, because it is impossible for you to remember. Why? Because such a decision was never made in the first place, and to make things even worse, no one ever even attempted to make such a decision.

They were so arrogant and so powerful that they trampled everything in their path, from the Clinton administration to the administration of numerous European countries. That is precisely why Serbia supports the actions of the administration of President Donald Trump and sees in his work an opportunity for establishing a more just order in the world and more responsible attitude towards Serbia as a close American ally from both world wars. And what they did not know or understand at the time was this.

They trampled Serbia, but they did not defeat it. Serbia rose like a phoenix from the ashes, and today, through its example, it shows everyone in the world how the international public order is preserved and how international public law is protected. Nevertheless, the consequences of their brutal attack against Serbia are enormous and particularly visible here in the UN General Assembly.

Admittedly, they are even more visible on the numerous battlefields around the world. Why? Well, because the principles of any kind no longer exist. Those who once trampled them have no moral right to speak about them," Vucic said.

"And to make the situation even worse and the hypocrisy even more visible, it is precisely those very people and those very countries that have assumed the position of supreme teachers of morality and every kind of protection of the values of the modern world. The most difficult thing for us in Serbia is when we see, in our surroundings, the resurgence of Nazism elevated to the position of social prominence, especially in the Republic of Croatia, which is proud of its Nazi past and of the use of Nazi slogans and symbols today. The Serbian people, as people who suffered the most at the hands of the Nazis, cannot accept the revival of the most terrible ghosts from the past responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma in monstrous concentration camps like Jasenovac," he noted.

"That is precisely why moral lectures coming from such sources are completely unacceptable to the Serbian people and Serbia. In addition, for four and a half years now, I have been listening to lectures how many in the West remain the last beacon of democracy in the world, the protectors not of Ukraine's, but of the rules and principles of international law. And when they raise their voices thinking that they are being highly moral and that their positions are the only right ones, we simply smile and ask ourselves: and how did you treat Kosovo-Metohija and the territorial integrity of Serbia, which is guaranteed by the UN Charter and the resolution of the UNSC 1244? To that, either there is no answer or they supposedly give us some well-intentioned advice and tell us not to look to the past but to the future," he added.

"When we ask them, 'do you also say to Ukraine that the territories they are fighting for are not important?', we end the pointless conversation and move on to another subject. And I want to warn all of you. All of you here who belong in the Global South pay the utmost attention while signing all the agreements with great powers.

That is how we signed the famous Brussels Agreement in 2013, wishing to resolve problems between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija by compromise. All the obligations that were to be met by Serbia have been met. And the only one that was to be met by Albanians, the one about the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities, has not been met to this day.

It is interesting that the agreement was accepted not only in the presence of the EU, but it was also confirmed with a signature of the EU, but it meant actually nothing. As the president of Serbia, for 10 years I have been facing all possible tricks and pressures to give up on full implementation of what was signed. It is a lesson to us, Serbs, but also to all others in the world who want to protect their countries.

In spite of everything, Serbia will defend its country, its territorial integrity, the UN Charter, the UN Security Council Resolution 1244. I wish to thank individually every one of the 107 countries, states that have not recognised the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo. We know that many of you, that many of those states have been subjected to pressure and we know that maintaining a principled position is sometimes far more difficult than it appears from the outside," Vucic said.

Vucic: Serbia is on EU path, its citizens rightly expect clearer perspective

NEW YORK - Serbia is on the EU path, but its citizens rightly expect a clearer perspective and more tangible results from a process in which their country has participated for more than a decade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday evening.

"Serbia is on its European path, and it will have to do many more things in order to become a full-fledged member of the EU. We are grateful to the European Union and, in particular, to the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and to the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, for every kind of assistance they have provided to our country.
Although full-fledged membership to the European Union remains a strategic priority, we cannot ignore the prolonged enlargement fatigue both amongst certain EU member states and among the candidate countries themselves. Serbia's European path is a clear illustration of the length and complexity of this process," Vucic noted, adding that Serbia had obtained candidate status in 2012 and opened its EU accession talks in 2014 - more than 12 years ago.

"The citizens of Serbia therefore rightly expect a clearer perspective and more tangible results from a process in which our country has participated for more than a decade. At a time when the next enlargement of the European Union does not appear likely in the near future, we have sought to remain constructive and to propose practical ways of overcoming the current impasse. We have therefore proposed that the Western Balkans be gradually integrated into the EU's single market and granted access to the Schengen area even before attaining full membership in the EU.

This would neither serve as a substitute for membership nor diminish our ambitions. Rather, it would provide a concrete and pragmatic way forward, enable the citizens and economies of the region to experience the tangible benefits of European integration and help overcome the deadlock in which the enlargement process has remained for far too long. However, a stable and integrated Europe, of which Serbia is a part, and our European path do not mean renouncing the traditional friendships, thanks to which Belgrade is one of the few European capitals from which one can fly directly to the United States of America, the People's Republic of China, and the Russian Federation," Vucic said.

"I owe special gratitude for the support during the COVID pandemic, as well as for a paramount investment in Serbia, to the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, hoping that his talks with President Trump will be productive and that they will contribute to the stabilisation of developments in the world," Vucic said.

"At the same time, we nurture ties with traditional friends and partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with whom we recently marked in Belgrade the 65th anniversary of the first conference of non-aligned countries, held in our capital in 1961. Our openness reflects our development strategy, our history, and our understanding of the world.

Serbia believes that states can have a clear course and interests of their own without closing the door to those with whom they do not agree on everything. After all, a world in which we speak only to those who think as we do would have little need for diplomacy. Freedom and independence in making decisions are the highest value for Serbia," he said.

Vucic: I invited Trump to visit Serbia, I hope we will make that happen next year

NEW YORK - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday in New York he had extended an invitation to US President Donald Trump to come to Serbia and that he hoped the visit would materialise next year.

Vucic was speaking to reporters after addressing the 81st UN General Assembly session.

Asked to comment on a deepening Serbia-US relationship, Vucic said a discussion with US officials on Tuesday had been better than any other the two sides had had before.

"I cannot speak to you about what we must do and what they will do. We agreed that we do something, that they do something, and that we proceed like that simultaneously. I think that is the best definition of our discussion last night. Therefore, it is about looking to do each other a favour and to deal with the easier issues before we get to the more difficult ones and the toughest issues between our two countries. We are definitely ready to talk," Vucic said.

He said the discussion had been sincere and open.

"I have been talking to everyone for 15 years now, and I think I do not remember having a discussion like that with the Americans at that level. We have never had such a good discussion - a sincere and open one, without a display of power," Vucic said.
Asked about Wednesday's reception hosted by Trump, Vucic responded that he had met with 120 leaders at the event.

"And I told him (Trump) to come to Serbia, I reiterated that, and I know he has received messages from elsewhere as well," Vucic said, adding that Trump had said he would "think about that well and that he has heard many nice things about Serbia."
"I believe, and I hope, that we can make that happen next year," he concluded.