Vucic says Serbia managed to open White House doors

“I am not stupid enough to think that this was not linked to issues linked to the US but Serbia was acorded respect,” he said, adding that Serbia was treated as a partner. He said that over the past 30 years, the White House had been reserved for Albanians and anyone else who was opposed to the Serbs.

 According to Vucic, Serbia’s position on the European path is not at all easy with the door to the White House closed up to now. “I have been hearing for the past few years that you can’t sit on two chairs and I always said that Serbia sits on its own chair. Today there are more than four chairs – the European Union plus Germany, the US, China and Russia as well as all the big regional players and in our region that is Turkey,” he said.

The Serbian president claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had apologized for the Facebook post by ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. He said that they never apologized for anything before. “Putin told me that the Russian state is not behind the post, especially not he personally,” he said. Zakharova compared a photograph of Vucic sitting in front of US President Donald Trump with a scene from the Sharon Stone movie Basic Instinct.

Vucic also said that he was reminded by the leaders of several global powers that UN Security Council resolution 478 banned the opening of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. “I told them to remind me when we do violate something and asked them why they violated UN Security Council resolution 1244 (on Kosovo). Two of them were shocked,” he said.

The Serbian President said that he would be talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to tell him that Serbia had extended its hand to Israel. “I’m not saying that Israel won’t recognize Kosovo but let’s wait and see the form,” he said. “We will talk to the Palestinians, our Arab friends and if Israel recognizes Kosovo, Pristina will go before us (set up its embassy in Jerusalem) and we’ll see the attitude of the Arab countries towards Kosovo then,” he said.

Asked about the White House Agreement which oblige Serbia to diversify its fuel and energy suppliers which some see as being directed against Russia, Vucic said that natural gas is not mentioned in the document. “You thought that even though gas is not mention. I told the American that we will buy the cheapest gas on the market and we managed to delete the clause that said that we would buy only American LNG,” he said and added that there was also no mention of China in the document which bans Serbia from buying 5G equipment from what were termed unreliable suppliers.

Vucic said that Serbia signed a letter of intent in Washington and that it would meet its obligations unless the Kosovo Albanians fail to meet theirs.