"Everything will blossom after Comrade Xi's visit"

"Everything will blossom after Comrade Xi's visit"

"During President Xi's visit, Serbia will sign 24 cooperative agreements with China, such a number has never been the case during any world leaders' visit to our country. Those agreements include not only those at national level, but also those focusing on economy, investment and cultural exchanges. China's investment to us is of great importance, and could solve a variety of problems of our companies from the past, which we could hardly deal with without the Chinese side," he told China Radio International.

Nikolic added that "nothing is beginning with the visit - but everything is expanding to unprecedented proportions."

"After so many years, a Chinese president is arriving in Serbia. It's like when spring arrives after a long winter. Everything will blossom after this visit of Comrade Xi Jinping, as we know very well that what is agreed with the president of China no one in China can then prevent," Nikolic has been quoted as saying.

The president went on to say that it was up to Serbia to present itself to China in a much better way than before, observing at the same time that China already presented itself to Serbia in the best light a long time ago - "with its successful businesspeople, a commitment to Serbia, and the decision to have Serbia as its launchpad to Europe."

He said that China is today, "fortunately for Serbia," in a position to spread its investments.

Nikolic added that "many countries already envy Serbia," and revealed that presidents of other countries have asked whether they could visit during Xi's stay here, so they could arrange a meeting.

"China is a surprise for many, but not for me... By reading a lot about your people I knew that one day you would have to explode (onto the scene), as sports commentators put it," Nikolic said, adding that Serbia has big plans regarding cooperation with China.

Nikolic also said his country found Chinese support precious, including during the vote at UNESCO last year when Pristina did not succeed in joining over Belgrade's opposition, and when "a resolution" failed at the UN Security Council.

Asked how the EU will in the future look at strengthening of relations between Serbia and China, Nikolic said that Serbia is a part of Europe through its history, culture, tradition and geography, "and should be in Europe (EU), wants to be in it the way other countries joining, by bringing order to its state - but Serbia has a lot of friends which it does not want to leave or sadden in any way."

"What would we achieve by introducing sanctions against Russia? We would only sadden Russia, pillory ourselves, because our great support in foreign policy is also Russia. What would we achieve, if we were to accept any kind of criticism in connection with China?," Nikolic asked.