Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia Defence Minister, said on Thursday his country wouldn’t beg Europe to take it in its family of nations if it didn’t want it and that there were “other alliances and nations which want to cooperate with Belgrade on an equal level,” but did not specify, the Beta news agency reported.

He added it didn’t mean Serbia would join any other alliance.

„There is none organised like the European Union,“ he told the Belgrade Pink television considered close to the country’s authorities.

 “We don’t have to be a member of anything, but we have to preserve our dignity and see what our political and economic interests are,” he added.

„Europe doesn’t want us? We will find a way to be wanted by other big and powerful countries,” Vulin said.

Some Western politicians and foreign and local analysts warned about ever increasing Russian and Chinese influence in the Balkans, particulary in Serbia.