Vučić from Davos: Last year was the worst since World War II; everyone is protecting national interests

“We are talking about peace and stability. Last year was the worst since World War II in terms of the number of wars that were started, and this year will be even worse, while next year will be worse than this one.

Everyone talks about peace, blaming others for not respecting something, but in the end, everyone protects their national interest. No one cares about multilateralism anymore, and that is the biggest mistake we all made in the past, and now no one can change it,” Vučić said, adding:

“If you expect that Trump will tomorrow say he agrees with Ursula von der Leyen’s words, that will not happen. Everyone knows that in advance. So what will the consequences be for everyone else? There are even people in our countries who will say—well, that’s far from us. But there is a spillover effect, and everyone will feel the consequences. That’s why I spoke about creating stronger ties between us, so that we can withstand these shocks to our economies and policies as much as possible. I am not optimistic; we have entered a world of uncertainty and volatility, and I’m not sure we will overcome it in the coming years.”

“I am a veteran here—I have been participating for 12 years. There are no people here who have attended this many times. I have never seen so many people here, and people don’t applaud anyone in Davos. People are here because they are worried about their future. Company representatives, business leaders, state leaders, government members—no one is overjoyed. No one smiles at anyone because they don’t know what tomorrow will bring to our countries,” Vučić added.

“Of course, we are very concerned, but when we create connections and link up, that is the solution for us. We may not be able to eliminate the pressures, but we can reduce them on our countries. Perhaps we can find some good solutions as a joint mediator for all the smaller countries in the Euro-Asian region,” he concluded.