Vucic receives group of Serb children from Slovenia

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday hosted a Christmas Eve reception for a group of about thirty ethnic Serb children from Slovenia who are visiting Belgrade for the Christmas holidays.

He chatted with the children and handed out Christmas presents to them.

Vucic said that, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, he would pray for peace and the survival of Serbs.

"For me, it is important that, amid circumstances that are not easy for humanity and Europe, I call for Christmas togetherness and spiritual togetherness among all Serbs," he said.

He thanked all those fighting for the survival of Serbs outside of Serbia.

"Today and tomorrow, I will pray for peace, for life and for the survival of our people, and we will do all we can to ensure that children in Kosovo-Metohija, too, have peace and that they can study at schools like you do and think about their future. I believe it is important that I ask you to cherish your language and the Cyrillic script, to look after your people in Slovenia as well as in Slovenia, Republika Srpska, Montenegro, in Kosovo-Metohija and everywhere else," he said.

Vucic extended Christmas Eve greetings to the Serbian patriarch, all Orthodox believers and the Serbs.

"I hope and I will pray that Christmas may bring us peace and well-being so that, for once in their history, the Serbs may avoid the great suffering we did not manage to avoid in the Balkan wars, WWI and WWII and in the wars of the 1990s and the 1999 NATO aggression on Serbia, and so that we may protect our country and our children and build a peaceful future. Merry Christmas Eve - Christ is born!" Vucic said.