Vucic: For the first time I'm not attending EU-Western Balkans summit, we will continue on EU path

President Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday revealed he would not travel to Brussels today for the EU-Western Balkans summit because he believes that he must protect Serbia's interests, and added that Serbia will certainly continue on the EU path.

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"For the first time in 13 or 14 years, neither myself nor anyone else will go to that intergovernmental conference. No one will be there on behalf of the Republic of Serbia, so they will have the Western Balkans without the Republic of Serbia. Why am I doing this? I made the decision, so that no one else can be blamed. I will not let the government come under any pressure. I've spoken with most European leaders over the previous 24 hours. I am infinitely grateful for the respect shown to Serbia by Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, grateful to President Macron, with whom I also spoke last night," Vucic told RTS.

The president noted that he did not even announce publicly that he had a long conversation with Macron.

"I think that what we are doing, we are doing for the sake of the citizens of Serbia. Regardless of the fact that I know it will be criticized by many in Brussels as well - and I know it will be criticized by those who criticize everything even when they don't know what they are criticizing - they will always find reason to criticize, no matter what I do. I think that I am protecting the Republic of Serbia, its interests, because we have to show first what we have done, and we have done a lot and they have admitted it," said Vucic.

He added that during the ministerial summit, presidents of Spain, Italy, France, our friends from Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, also spoke about that and strongly supported it.

"Of course, the situation is different when you are talking about Croatia, Bulgaria, when you are talking about the Netherlands, Sweden and some other countries. In any case, we will continue the European path as long as I am president, that is our policy, but it won't be for long. After that, a new president and a new government will make a decision on how to proceed," said Vucic.

He added that it is very important for him at this time to solve the issue of NIS (Petroleum Industry of Serbia) , as well as to preserve peace.

"People don't understand how close we are to a conflict. People said today, 'we want to see if, in the event of a conflict, Serbia is on our side or on Russia's side' - some who spoke in Brussels did. Serbia is on its own side. No matter how much that is disliked in Washington, in Brussels, in Moscow. Serbia is on its side. You know, we lost almost 29 percent of the population in the 1st World War. In the 2nd World War, out of all the victims (in Yugoslavia) 90 percent were Serbs, I'm talking about those who died on the anti-fascist side in Yugoslavia. All the others, they had losses on the fascist side and very few on the anti-fascist side. There were, of course, (anti-fascist) Croats, Bosniaks, and others, but those were such small numbers compared to Serbs, that it is clear what losses we experienced and survived," said Vucic.

He stressed that Serbia does not want go to war, but that it will keep strengthening its army.

"We are buying a lot of new systems, I want people to feel safe, to know that we have very strong deterrents and that those who are thinking of trying something, that they know that it's not possible, because their losses would be incalculable and make it impossible to maintain such an attack," said Vucic.

The president stressed that his goal is to preserve peace and for Serbia's economy to progress.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)