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Russia not to blame for Belgrade’s EU admission talks being stalled — Serbian top diplomat

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BELGRADE, October 28. /TASS/. Russia cannot be blamed for Serbia making little progress on being admitted to the EU, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic told reporters on Friday.

"I read in a newspaper today that members of the Liberal Democratic Party said yesterday in the Skupstina (Serbian parliament) that Serbia had failed to open new chapters (of the EU admission talks dossier) because of Russia. But this is an outright lie," Dacic stated.

"They are trying to make it look like Russia is to blame for Serbia making little progress on the path to EU admission, it’s time to stop lying," Dacic asserted. In his opinion, the only reason for EU member states not reaching an agreement on opening new chapters is that little progress has been made in the negotiation process between Belgrade and Pristina on normalizing bilateral relations. If there is progress, then the chapters will be opened in December but it has nothing to do with the 31st chapter concerning foreign policy, that still hasn’t been opened, Serbia’s top diplomat stressed.

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