Official: Bigger Escalation Between Russia, Ukraine Would Negatively Affect Serbia

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nemanja Starovic (Photo: printscreen/youtube)

Any bigger escalation between Russia and Ukraine would have a very negative impact on Serbia's foreign policy and its position in the foreign policy arena, the state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nemanja Starovic, has said.

Starovic told public service RTS late on Jan. 27 that "a more serious and wider escalation between Russia and Ukraine would certainly be a disaster," seeing as they were two "friendly and brotherly Slavic peoples" for Serbia, and added that it would put Serbia's foreign policy in a very difficult and inconvenient position.

"I want to point out that we are in no way part of the political or any either conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and are not and will not be part of the problem. If there is even the least bit of space for us to be part of the solution, we are ready for something like that," said Starovic. He added that Belgrade was appealing for peace and a peaceful solution because a great escalation was not in anyone's interest, not in the interest of Moscow or Kyiv or Central and Western European states, the Ministry said in a press release.

He went on to say that there should be no fear of escalation of a bigger armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, if the situation was viewed objectively, but that the publicly formed perceptions often affected the reality on the ground and that even sharp rhetoric may ultimately lead to the escalation of the conflict.

"I, nevertheless, hope that will not be the case, that reason will prevail. I hope that this intensive diplomatic activity will bear fruit. We are now seeing an intensive exchange of different messages, a dialogue at the level of Moscow-Washington and Russia-NATO, meetings are being planned in the so-called Normandy Format, which besides Moscow and Kyiv also includes Paris and Berlin," said Starovic.