Vucic Criticizes West for Calling on Both Sides to Reduce Tension

Aleksandar Vucic

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sept. 20 criticized representatives of the West urging both Belgrade and Pristina to reduce newly risen tension.

"I've had more than enough of all that talk about appeals to both sides. I ask those who talk every day about appeals to both sides: What has Serbia done unilaterally, how have we attacked them, how have we threatened them, what is it that we have done against them? Other than telling me that we don't respect them as a state, you can't name one unilateral move by Serbia," Vucic said in Belgrade.

Earlier, the European Union urged Pristina and Belgrade to refrain from unilateral actions and solve the problem arising from Pristina deciding to seize Serbian license plates in northern Kosovo through the EU-mediated dialog. The U.S. embassy in Pristina also urged Kosovo and Serbia to restraint and immediate defusing of tension created when license plate "reciprocity measures" were introduced.

Earlier in the day, Vucic earlier met with Miroslav Lajcak, EU special representative to the Belgrade-Pristina dialog and other West Balkan regional issues, who was visiting Serbia.