Vucic in Munich: Serbia Reproached for Not Imposing Sanctions against Russia

Aleksandar Vucic, Belgrade, Jan. 23 2023(BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Munich on Feb. 18 that he had a "not so easy" talk with European Union High Representative Josep Borrell and that Serbia was "strongly reproached" for not joining sanctions against the Russian Federation "in a very forceful way."

In a statement to Pink TV from Munich, where he was attending day two of the Munich Security Conference, Vucic said he did not want to keep anything from "our people." He and Borrell had also discussed "preparations for potential talks" with Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti, he said. Borrell has called a high-level meeting between Vucic and Kurti for Feb. 27.

"I said I was always willing to talk, but we know what we need to talk about, and that is the Community of Serb Municipalities. Serbia never ran from dialogue, it will not shrink from dialogue. Serbia is ready to work on everything it said it would -- implementation stemming from the French-German agreement and everything else, but you know the sequence of events and how things need to go," Vucic said.

While in Munich, Vucic also met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the prime minister of Greece and the British foreign minister. He also spoke with the prime minister of North Macedonia and state secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs.