Vucic on Talks with Djukanovic: We Haven’t Agreed on Anything

Aleksandar Vucic (Photo: Presidency of Serbia / Dimitrije Goll)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Jan. 23 that his talks with Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic about the position of Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro yielded nothing – that they “haven’t agreed on anything,” but that they will continue to talk.

“I’m trying to find a smart way to improve the position of the Serbian people in Montenegro, while respecting the Serbian Orthodox Church. It goes without saying that the talks were difficult; [it is so] when you have two people that can’t agree about key points concerning the Serbs and Serbian Orthodox Church. But we both understand that Montenegro does not need a clash with Serbia, just like Serbia doesn’t need a clash with Montenegro,” Vucic said for PINK TV in Israel, where he is attending the event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Commenting on the statements made by Mladjan Djordjevic, former Serbian president Boris Tadic’s adviser, about how “the pressure exerted on the Serbian Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Amfilohije is the joint work of Djukanovic and Vucic,” the president responded by saying that Amfilohije is not a “thorn in his side,” and that Djordjevic, Dragan Djilas and Dveri movement have no idea what they are doing or what they want.

“I won’t respond to such political nonsense as ‘oh, he made a deal with Milo Djukanovic;’ it’s too stupid to comment on. I’m not going to send tanks [to Montenegro]; instead, we will talk,” Vucic added.