Requests for Serbia to fully align with European Union’s (EU) foreign policy and impose sanctions on Russia means “changing the rules of the game during a match,” said Serbia's Secretary of State at the Foreign Ministry Nemanja Starovic, the Beta agency reported.

“This is nowhere defined as our obligation. Even if it were to happen, there is no adequate valorization,” Starovic told the pro-regime Pink TV.

The Secretary of State cited the examples of Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania which, as he said, fully aligned with EU’s foreign and security policy, and wondered how this was valued and “if they have made progress on their European path.”

“I am afraid not. Accession to the EU is, without any doubt, our foreign policy priority, it is, no doubt, also in the interest of our state and citizens, but to talk about some kind of European prospects today, without providing a clear framework or a date for our entry into full membership, is extremely frivolous,” said Starovic.

The Secretary of State said Serbia’s only obligation related to the negotiating framework is to gradually align its foreign policy until its full membership in the EU and that the new requests it is getting “are much like ultimatums”, which, he said Serbia “has never in history reacted to well.”