President: Serbia right country for OSCE chairmanship

President: Serbia right country for OSCE chairmanship

Ukraine is a friend to Serbia and it has not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo and Metohija, Nikolić said in an interview broadcast on Saturday by the Russia-24 channel.

He believes that Serbia has "a unique role in the world" and is "a friend to all who are in mutual conflict," and that this will help the country when it takes over as OSCE chair in 2015.

He explained that Serbia had friendly relations "with China and Japan, both Koreas, Israel and Palestine, Arabs and Iranians, India and Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Georgia and Russia, Turkey and Cyprus, Turkey and Greece, Greece and Macedonia."

Replying to the statement by the Russian newscaster that Serbia's position makes room for a dialogue with both sides and preserving the country's national interests at the same time, while Ukraine had brought itself in the position where it had to choose between Russia and the EU, Nikolić said that comparisons between these two examples can be hardly made because Ukraine was divided.

A part of Ukraine wanted to stand by the EU and the other part opted for Russia, the Serbian president said and added that Serbia was not divided in this sense, as it wants to keep good ties with both Russia and the EU, which Russia and the EU should make possible.

Asked if he has any concerns about the possibility for Serbia to delay its EU accession in this way, Nikolić declined and noted that when the country decided to conduct the talks with the EU, there was no mention of introducing sanctions against Russia.

According to him, Serbia will not join such sanctions, but the EU will "certainly try to demand that Serbia does, even more strongly, perhaps very shortly."

"Europe insists on the part of the agreement on accession to the EU that concerns foreign policy. But, there are always exceptions. In essence, Europe does not have a common foreign policy on any issue," he told the Russian broadcaster, and mentioned Kosovo - whose unilaterally declared independence was not recognized by five member-countries - as an example.

"If there are exceptions, then they should be there for everyone, Serbia included, while Serbia will fulfill all the normal conditions to join the EU," Nikolić said.

Asked about his view of Russia, Nikolić said that he sees it like most Serbian citizens, as part of history, present and the future.

We share the same origin, language, religion, tradition and culture, Nikolić said and added that Serbia and Russia were always on the same side in wars. Nevertheless, he noted that the two countries did not understand each other right off sometimes, and gave the example the period of the 1990s.

"This period was marked by the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and both countries had many problems of their own at the time, the president recalled and added that Russia even voted in favor of sanctions against Yugoslavia, which were similar to the ones now imposed on Russia. I regret that at that time, Russia did not have a president like the one it has now."

Speaking about the forthcoming celebration of the 70th anniversary of liberation of Belgrade in 1994, Nikolić said that he regards the Russian Federation as the legal successor of the Soviet Union, while the Russian Armed Forces are in his view the legal successor of the Red Army, adding that Serbia sees Ukraine as a friend.

Speaking about the forthcoming military parade and the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Belgrade, Nikolić said that military parades were not organized for 29 years and that the time has come to stage a military parade in Serbia again.

"We have decided to magnify the importance of the parade by attendance of the supreme commander of the Armed Forces at the event, just like Marshal Georgy Zhukov and General Vladimir Zhdanov attended the military parades in 1944. The supreme commander of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Serbia will also attend the parade, and this is not an exception nor is there anything special about it," Nikolić said in the show.