MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. Serbia is interested in deepening cooperation with BRICS, Minister of Family Welfare and Demography Milica Durdevic-Stamenkovski told TASS in an interview.
"Given that Germany has adopted a strategic cooperation plan with India that runs through 2050, and France has concluded its largest investment agreement with the People's Republic of China, I fail to see how the European Union can present any valid argument to challenge Serbia's right and decision to build bridges of alliance and cooperation with BRICS members," she said.
The minister highlighted that Serbia is a sovereign and independent state that conducts its foreign policy in the interests of its people who have expressed their will in the elections, as well as in accordance with state and national interests.
"It is well known that Serbia is economically dependent on the European Union, yet despite this, Belgrade resists Brussels' attempts to force Serbia into aligning its foreign and security policies with the EU," she continued.
"Serbia has not imposed sanctions on Moscow, and our determination to preserve strategic relations with traditional allies has never been called into question. This is a policy consistently pursued by both the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the President of the Republic, who has repeatedly made it clear that Serbia—despite being in the process of European integration—should not "cut off its own leg" and renounce friendship and cooperation with states bound to it by historically rooted relations, reinforced by strategic partnership agreements," added Durdevic-Stamenkovski.