Dacic: There was no pronounced pressure on Serbia

BRUSSELS - Serbian FM Ivica Dacic said in Brussels on Monday there had been no pressure on Serbia at his meeting with EU and Western Balkan FMs earlier in the day and that he was pleasantly surprised that nearly all EU FMs had spoken about a need for the Western Balkans to join the bloc as soon as possible within concrete timeframes.

Dacic explained that, however, no specific timeframes had been discussed at the meeting.

He added that representatives of interim Pristina institutions had once again demonstrated a consistently extremist behaviour.

"They talked about Serbia being a danger to peace and stability, that we are a disturbing factor and that they are a factor of peace and stability, which seems really unreal," Dacic told reporters in Brussels.

He noted that he did not understand how, as many as ten years after he had signed the Brussels Agreement, Pristina was still able to make extremist statements and how there was no talk about the reasons for its failure to form a Community of Serb Municipalities.

He said alignment of Serbia's foreign policy with the EU had been discussed as well and that he had called for a fair treatment of Serbia.

He said Serbia was not neutral in terms of values when it comes to the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and added that Belgrade had demonstrated this by voting in favour of various resolutions.

He added that Serbia had not joined the sanctions on Russia because it did not believe such measures were correct and also because it had been guided by its own interests, specifically, its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

He also said Serbia would not be a place from which sanctions would be violated.

"What we can be glad about is that there was no pronounced pressure on Serbia - on the contrary, I think that everyone was able to see what the extremist policy pursued by Pristina looks like," Dacic said.