"Past divides us but future connects us"

"Past divides us but future connects us"

According to him, what at this time separates Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia are issues from the past and "the passion that usually arises from religious beliefs."

"What connects us is precisely the future," Vucic said, adding that he "knows that 50 percent of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) still don't trust him" - because of "a fierce campaign" and a significant amount of negative passion against Serbs.

Stating that without stability in Bosnia-Herzegovina there can be no stability in the region, the president stressed that Serbia will do everything to prevent new conflicts in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Asked whether this meant that he would "distance himself from the statements of RS President Milorad Dodik who believes that one day Serbia and the RS will be one in the territorial and state sense", Vucic replied that he "always respects Dodik, as the RS president, and that institution" - and that he "does not speak publicly against the RS or its president."

"I can tell you the position of Serbia - we respect the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We have no pretensions toward Bosnia-Herzegovina, as we expect from Bosnia-Herzegovina and every other state towards the territory of Serbia," the Serbian president said.

Asked "why Serbia did not recognize that genocide happened in Srebrenica" and to reacting to the assessment that this was derisive, "just like mocking (WW2 Croatian death camp) Jasenovac", Vucic said that Serbia "does not mock Srebrenica - and the term 'genocide' is a legal term."

"You could not hear anyone from the authorities in Serbia play with or even encourage different theories about what happened, how it happened in Srebrenica," he said.

According to Vucic, in Serbia there is sincere respect and sympathy for Bosniak victims in Srebrenica, as well as towards Serb victims in that area of Bosnia.

Vucic explained that crimes happened against Serbs for which nobody has been held accountable, but that he "does not want to equalize them with the killing of 8,000 Srebrenica residents."

Speaking about the announced joint declaration on the position of Serbs in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, Vucic said that it refers to the survival of the national identity of the Serb people, stressing that it is "not about some new memorandum, like SANU's memorandum in the early 1990s."

Vucic also said that Serbia stands for military neutrality, adding that this does not mean that Serbia should not have good relations "with NATO and everyone else."