BELGRADE, February 3. /TASS/. Serbia continues its efforts to join the European Union, but does not intend to become part of NATO, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday during his speech at a session of the National Assembly (the country's parliament).
"Serbia is on the European path, and as for Atlantic integration, Serbia does not want to join NATO. Serbia wants to jealously guard its military neutrality and strengthen it. There is a difference between the European integration and Atlantic integration," the RTS TV channel quoted Vucic as saying in response to the opposition representative’s address to comment on the issue of joining NATO.
Vucic has previously noted that Serbia had never planned to join NATO for logical reasons, despite various statements and assessments, and intended to maintain its military neutrality in the future.
NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia began on March 24, 1999, and dragged on for 78 days. The operation, dubbed Allied Force, cited "the prevention of the genocide of Albanians in Kosovo" as its main cause. According to NATO statistics, during the operation, the Alliance’s aviation carried out 38,000 sorties, over 10,000 of them being bombing runs.
According to Serbian officials, the bombing resulted in the deaths of 3,500 to 4,000 people, while some 10,000 people were injured, two-thirds of them being civilians. Material damage was upwards of $100 billion.
During the three months of bombing, NATO dropped 15 metric tons of depleted uranium as bombs on Serbian soil. After that, Serbia became the number one country in Europe in cancer incidence, as during the first 10 years after the bombings, some 30,000 people came down with cancer in the country, and between 10,000 and 18,000 of them died.