Vucic Announces Increased Serbian Presence in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/Predsednistvo Srbije/Dimitrije Goll)

In his keynote at the Dec. 24 opening of Serbia’s annual Ambassadors’ Conference in Belgrade, President Aleksandar Vucic stated that the country must “increase its presence in Africa, Asia and Latin America.”

Addressing the gathering of Serbia’s ambassadors and diplomats stationed across the world, Vucic underlined that said continents comprise countries whose populations number millions of people, have high GDP growth rates and “will offer much business in the future.”

According to the president, an ambassador’s job “isn’t to be liked but to represent the interests of Serbia.”

“Many regional and large global forces have launched a new wave of recognizing so-called Kosovo’s independence,” Vucic told the gathering, adding that Serbia “will have to continue the difficult and arduous task and efforts toward un-recognition.”

“To us, Kosovo and Metohija is an unalienable part of Serbia. That is how it was, that is how it will be, and I know it’s not pleasant when you have to speak of this in London or Washington. . . But that is how it is, so I ask you that there be no arguments on the matter, no discussions. . . Otherwise, you haven’t represented our policy,” Vucic said at the event, which is taking place at the Palace of Serbia.

The president went on to point out that neither Pristina, nor the EU, nor the U.S. have abided by the agreements signed so far within the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue on Kosovo.

Foreign Minister Marko Djuric, who also spoke during the opening ceremony, told the gathering that “we are currently living at the turn of an epoch.”

“As few generations do, we have responsibility in times when events change in the blink of an eye. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the adage that there are sometimes decades when nothing happens, then weeks when decades worth of things happen. In such times, a gathering such as this is a true necessity,” Djuric said.

The two-day event, organized by the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has brought together ambassadors, the heads of Serbia’s missions with international organizations and general consuls. Following the opening ceremony, the agenda includes three panel discussions: “Serbia’s Energy Security in Times of Geopolitical Turbulence,” “Serbia en Route to EU Membership: Challenges and Perspectives” and “EXPO 2027,” where the ministers in charge of relevant sectors will address the conference.