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Serbian president thanks Russian authorities for supporting Belgrade’s sovereignty

Aleksandar Vucic met with Moscow’s Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko

BELGRADE, May 15. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has thanked the Russian authorities for supporting his country’s territorial integrity and respecting its sovereignty.

"I once again thanked Russia for its firm stance on Serbia’s territorial integrity and respect for our sovereignty <...> and the path that our country has chosen. The path is not easy but we expect to get full support from all of Serbia’s true friends," Vucic wrote on Instagram (prohibited in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist) following a meeting with Moscow’s Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko.

The president added that they had exchanged views "on Serbia’s efforts to enter the international stage to ensure not only its own national interests but also respect for international law and the principles that a fair world order should be based on." "I emphasized that it’s vital for our country to preserve regional stability and pointed out that Pristina’s arbitrary actions and initiatives such as the UN General Assembly’s resolution on Srebrenica would neither facilitate the reconciliation process nor strengthen trust and cooperation," Vucic noted.

Earlier, commenting on the upcoming vote on a Srebrenica resolution spearheaded by Germany and Rwanda, Vucic said that he would send a special envoy to UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis

On July 8, 2015, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution related to the 1995 Srebrenica tragedy. The document described the killing of about 8,000 Bosniak Muslims in the enclave as an act of genocide and emphasized that denial of the fact was preventing reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia’s then-Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, warned against putting the resolution to a vote, saying that it threatened to exacerbate the situation in Bosnia in Herzegovina, as well as across the Balkans.

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