BELGRADE, July 6. /TASS/. Serbia will not give up the right to choose its friends even amid Western pressure, nor will it join anti-Russian sanctions, the Balkan republic’s Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin said.

"When the European Union asks Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia for the sake of the principle of the inviolability of borders, an EU official’s statement should be reread to make sure it is not fake news or any trick using Artificial Intelligence," Vulin’s party Movement of Socialists quoted him as saying in a statement.

"Serbia is a small country, but is not small enough to give up on itself or its right to choose friends," Vulin said as he commented on an EU official’s remark that Serbia should impose sanctions on Russia and distance itself from it.

Earlier, the senior Serbian official has said Western politicians have been working to persuade Serbia that its relations with Russia based on fraternity and long-standing friendly relations are an unnecessary burden. Vulin has also stressed that Belgrade will continue to refuse joining anti-Russian sanctions despite a warning from the EU’s diplomacy chief, Josep Borrell, that such a position contradicts the idea of the country’s accession to the bloc.