Serbian PM to Trump: Great victory, remarkable campaign

Serbian PM to Trump: Great victory, remarkable campaign

"I take this opportunity to express my sincere congratulations on your election success and the great victory in the presidential election. I believe you will approach your duties as the 45th president of the United States with the dedication and determination that characterized also your remarkable campaign. The leadership that you have shown on this occasion, represents a strong will that is necessary not only to citizens of the United States, but also to the whole world.

I sincerely hope that your victory will contribute to continuing improvement of bilateral relations between Serbia and the United States, which are already on the path of progress and development, to the mutual benefit of our two countries."

Earlier, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that Serbia would "offer its hand to whomever wins" in the United States.

Staunch Hillary Clinton supporter Daniel Serwer told the Belgrade-based daily Blic that neither candidate would make the Balkans their priority if they won - but that Clinton was "certainly more dedicated to stability and democracy in this region," including to "territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo."

The U.S. political analyst and a Johns Hopkins professor also said that Trump's victory would be "good for Putin, but bad for Serbia":

"With all due respect to Serbia, it seems to me that recent events show it is facing a serious political and criminal threat to its democracy and stability that is coming from Russia and from Serbian forces loyal to Russia. The Trump-Putin romance could additionally increase that threat. The safest place for Serbia's democracy is the EU, not between the EU and Moscow."

"Best possible"

Serbia wants the best possible relations with the U.S. and it did not support any of the candidates in the presidential elections there, Aleksandar Vucic said later in the day.

He also "expressed the hope people in Serbia would realize that many things depended on them, first and foremost," Tanjug reported.

Unlike many others, Serbia did not interfere in the U.S. elections because it considered them an internal affair of the U.S. and a matter of the free will of its people, he said.

"Not for a second did we back any of the candidates, and we did the right thing," Vucic said, noting Serbia's job was to "mind its own elections."

Commenting on the jubilation in Serbia and his Serb Progressive Party (SNS) following Donald Trump's election victory, Vucic said that, among other things, this showed that people had been feeling pressure for decades and were now expecting that pressure to subside.