Dacic in New York: Those who talk about preserving territorial integrity have double standards

Photo: Milena Djordjevic

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic, who is in New York as a member of the Serbian delegation led by President Aleksandar Vucic, which is attending the UN General Assembly, said that he had a series of bilateral meetings with ministers of foreign affairs of several countries, as well as that he attended receptions organized by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock.

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"This is always the most important political week in the world, the session of the General Assembly is held and all the member countries, and there are 193 of them, send their top representatives to participate in the discussions, but not only in the discussions in the plenary session, there is also a whole series of other accompanying events, and also bilateral meetings. The delegation led by President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic attended the opening of the debate.

President Vucic will speak on Thursday. We will present very precisely what we think about the issues concerning our territorial integrity. You also heard the president, we take very careful note when someone speaks on that topic. Those who speak about that subject, the need to preserve territorial integrity, obviously have double standards when they think about which countries it refers to. We believe that it must refer to Serbia," said Dacic.

"Of course, our foreign policy position depends a lot on our conversations and contacts. The president will have a whole series of meetings with his colleagues, I will have a whole series of meetings with my colleagues. I paid the most attention to the countries with which I want to check their views on Kosovo and Metohija," he added.

"Representatives of Pristina are abusing the fact that they can enter here as guests, that is, as part of the (UN) mission in Kosovo and Metohija, they are not part of this official General Assembly, and for now there are no indications or announcements that there will be a change in that. On the other hand, it is very important that our views on some current issues are heard. Our main goal is to be fair to everyone.

The big question is whether they are ready and how ready they are to expose Pristina to criticism. In this sense, our position will improve, because we will be sure that we have a solid majority in the UN General Assembly and that no tricks can lead to Kosovo being admitted to the UN. That is extremely important for us," he said.

Dacic assessed earlier that the meetings he had were an opportunity for constructive discussions.

"During the first day on the sidelines of the general debate of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, I had bilateral meetings with foreign ministers of Cyprus, Nepal, Armenia, Burkina Faso and the United Arab Emirates, with whom I discussed further improvement of bilateral relations," he posted on his Instagram account ivica.dacic.rs.

The minister added that he used the meetings with colleagues from Hungary, Luxembourg, Palestine, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as a working breakfast with heads of diplomacy of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Croatia and Slovenia, hosted by Italian foreign minister, for exchange of opinions.

(Telegraf.rs)