President: Russia knows Serbians don't want NATO

President: Russia knows Serbians don't want NATO

"Our political relations are exclusive and I must say that they are exclusive among other things because Russia has an understanding of Serbia," Nikolic told TASS, and added:

"Otherwise it would be very easy to say: well, you want to be part of the European Union, then our position towards you will be the same we have in respect of other member countries of the European Union. No, Russia has always been one step ahead in its support to Serbia than one could expect it to be."

The president told Sputnik that the recent ratification of an agreement with NATO did not disturb the balance between the East and the West - "because that balance never existed - NATO always had more possibilities to achieve something with the administration in Serbia."

"I think it's enough to tell Russians we will not join NATO and that Russia, as a serious country, does not have to check at all whether we have ties with Moscow and NATO to the same percentage. Russia knows that Serbian citizens do not want Serbia in NATO and that it is not dangerous if we do not agree on quite everything. She never insists on it," Nikolic said.

He noted that the agreement in question was signed three years ago and that "dust was raised as if it meant Serbia was entering NATO" when it came to ratifying it.

"If that's the point of view, then we joined the alliance three years ago. We will not enter NATO," Nikolic stressed.

According to Nikolic, reaching an agreement to grant diplomatic immunity to the Russian-Serian Humanitarian center in Nis, southern Serbia, "is not a very important topic for Moscow" as otherwise "that could have been solved when the agreement on mine clearance was put together."

Nikolic also rejected "media claims" that Russia was pressuring Serbia into signing a deal on diplomatic immunity with the Center, adding that in his relations with Russia, he has "no secrets before anyone."

"It is well known how much I love Russia, and how much I personally want us to be in the EU," said the president.

Speaking for TASS, Nikolic observed that "the EU has deviated from its principle that it is a union of states. Brussels intruded itself upon others as the capital of the new supranational state. They say: if you are in the EU - you must! They don’t say 'you may', but 'you must'. Must do this, must do that…"

"People who are sitting in Brussels receive huge salaries and they no longer care about their countries at all. They are more concerned about where they will be after their mandates expire - what their next appointment in the EU and how to avoid moving too far away from Brussels," he added.

"I can’t say what will happen to the EU. Perhaps the EU knows. But the euro crisis did not hit the EU as strong as Russia’s sanctions. This is the biggest problem especially for small member-states of the EU. If you ban me from exporting my goods and force me to compete with European countries on the EU market, the countries which are more developed and are capable of supplying their products for the price which is 3-4 times lower, than we are not equal. In this case the EU is the mother for certain countries and stepmother for others. I really want the EU to get over this crisis, but this requires an immediate dialogue with Russia," Nikolic said.

He also thinks that the migrant crisis is "the first serious challenge for the EU, before which what was signed and agreed on fell apart."

"Serbia has an advantage - it is a transit country. In fact none of them want to live here," Nikolic said, adding that "Serbia is less guilty than other states but it may happen that Europe fully closes its borders and they continue to arrive infiltrating through the borders of Greece and Macedonia and Serbia."

"I think we would receive more than 3,000 migrants on our territory who don’t know what to do and where to turn to. We would not know what to do with them," TASS quoted Nikolic as saying.

Serbia is not to blame for that crisis as it is in no way involved in the events in the Middle East or Africa, the president continued, and admitted he was not optimistic about "this process of migration coming to an end one day. "

Speaking about Syria, he observed that had Russia not intervened there, it could have faced "the history of the countries, which prior to it, did not have protection, did not have support. If it did not interfere, Syria now would be a country of the so-called Islamic State, which somebody in the world even could recognize."

"At the time where the Kosovo terrorism developed into establishment of a quasi-country, which some countries, both progressive and fundamentalist, began recognizing, I was confident time will come and some forces in the Islamic world will realize guns and weapons may be used to establish a state," the president said, and added:

"My position is Russia should be in the military aspect involved in protection of Syria at the request from Syria, as it would mean protection from terrorism, and it is much better to get protected from it in Syria than in Russia. This is a doctrine, which is used also by the U.S., as they travel the world to fight terrorism. It is a good doctrine but it is necessary to cooperate."