Dacic Serbia backs fight against terrorism

Dacic Serbia backs fight against terrorism

"We are making changes to legal regulations that will enable us to punish people involved in conflicts around the world," Dacic said, adding that Serbia will strongly support the international fight against terrorism, including action against the Islamic State.

Speaking at a press conference, Dacic said that Serbia cannot take part in anti-terrorist air raids, but that it can assist the fight against terrorism in other ways - primarily through legislative changes, cooperation with the relevant security services of other countries, and possibly with arms shipments as well.

Serbia is not the right place for arguments between the ambassadors of Russia and the United States because it is not an international organisation where such opinions can be voiced, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday.

Asked to comment on a recent verbal conflict between the two ambassadors, Dacic said that the world is in a grave crisis of trust, and that Serbia, as the country that will chair the OSCE next year, will insist on an ease in the tensions between big powers.
"Fortunately, Serbia is not part of that conflict and is not a subject of disagreements between big powers. Serbia is not the right place for raising such issues, because the ambassadors of Russia and the United States are the representatives of those countries in Serbia, and Serbia is not an international organisation where such opinions can be voiced," Dacic told at the press conference.

In the past few days, the Russian and US ambassadors to Serbia, Alexander Chepurin and Michael Kirby, got involved in a discussion on commemorations of anniversaries of historical events.

When the US ambassador asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin, rather than the president of some other former Soviet republic, should come to Belgrade on the anniversary of the city's liberation in World War II, Chepurin responded that
Kirby demonstrated an incredible lack of knowledge of history by saying that the USSR had 12, rather than 15 republics.

Kirby then responded by saying that the United States never acknowledged Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania as Soviet republics because it did not believe that Hitler had the right to give those countries away.

Serbia has the obligation to align its foreign policy to Brussels by the end of its EU accession talks, but it is not realistic to
achieve that alignment now, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday.

Speaking about objections by some EU member states that Serbia's state policy is not aligned to the one pursued by Brussels, Dacic told at the press conference that negotiations on this matter were yet to start.
"We also believe that Serbia should become an EU member immediately, but that is not realistic," Dacic said, noting that the EU membership is a priority for Belgrade, but that also maintaining the best possible relations with countries outside that organisation.

Dacic also said that Serbia is under no obligation to halt the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline and that no one can impose this on it.

Asked whether the LGBT pride parade will go ahead in Belgrade on September 28, Dacic responded that it would be a foreign policy plus for Serbia, but that the holding of the parade did not depend on the Foreign Ministry, but on the security assessments that would be provided by the relevant authorities.

He reminded that an earlier parade did go ahead during his tenure as interior minister, but that many police officers and protesters were injured at the time and that the material damage caused was great.