Djuric: While on EU path, we will strengthen cooperation with all

BELGRADE - While on the EU path, Serbia will also continue to develop and strengthen cooperation with countries in all parts of the world, Serbian FM Marko Djuric said on Tuesday.

"While building new ones, we will not forget old partnerships and traditional friendships. We will continue to advance comprehensive bilateral relations with the most significant actors in international politics - the US, China and Russia, as well as with all European partners," Djuric said at the opening of an international academic conference on contemporary international relations, also attended by foreign diplomats and ambassadors posted to Belgrade.

Serbia will continue to successfully raise the level of its relations with friendly states in Africa, Asia and Latin America, he said.

Serbia will not give up on its advocacy of the universality of the fundamental principles of the UN Charter in spite of the fact that it itself is facing the consequences of its selective application and the gross violation of international law in the case of the unilateral declaration of independence of the so-called Kosovo, whereby Serbia also suffered a historical injustice, he said.

"The unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo-Metohija represents a gross violation of international law but, unfortunately, it is not the worst thing that has happened to us. The worst thing that is happening to us is still the horrible pressure on non-majority communities, especially on the Serb community in Kosovo-Metohija, which is exposed to systematic harassment and violations of collective human, political and economic rights," Djuric said.

He said Serbia conducted an independent foreign policy based on safeguarding its national and state interest while always respecting the fundamental principles of international law.

He noted that Serbia always highlighted the importance of regional stability, advancement of regional cooperation and good-neighbourly relations, and added that Serbia's approach was based on a vision of a joint EU future.

"Serbia wants to become an EU member state - that vision is based on the principles of mutual trust and respect for our state and our people," Djuric said, noting that Serbia continued to support all initiatives helping regional cooperation and integration.

He noted that the initiative for a Srebrenica resolution had produced just the opposite and that it had been launched in an illegitimate manner, without a decision by the relevant Bosnia and Herzegovina authority and without an agreement in the region.

"That resolution has a deeply negative impact on the reconciliation process, which represents a complex and delicate process in the Balkans," Djuric said.

He added that the adoption of the resolution, which he noted was "not a result of joint consensus, but political pressure", was a serious setback for the reconciliation process.