site.btaSerbian President Vucic: Serbia Will Always Support Ukraine on Its Path to European Union Integration

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Serbia would always support Ukraine on its path towards European Union integration.

"Ukraine will always have the full support of our country on its European path, and I am grateful to the Ukrainian President for the support he has given Serbia. I made it clear that we support the United Nations Charter and Ukraine’s territorial integrity, just as we are deeply grateful to Ukraine for supporting the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia. We will continue to pursue this principled policy," the Serbian President said.

He said it was a great honour and pleasure for him to host Zelenskyy in Belgrade, eight years after the last visit to Serbia by a Ukrainian president. Vucic said he was confident that meetings and contacts between the two countries would become far more frequent in the future than they had been in the past.

"We discussed ways of improving our bilateral relations in all areas of social life, and I believe that through cooperation in agriculture, energy and all other fields, trade between our countries can increase significantly. We also discussed joint infrastructure projects and the involvement of Ukrainian companies in Serbia, and I believe we can achieve good and highly significant results in the future," Vucic said.

"We did not discuss any military cooperation today. What will happen after the war is over is a different matter," Vucic said at the press conference.

However, at the end of his remarks to the media, he did refer to the security sector.

"We will open a drone factory here in September, but together with the Israelis. The Ukrainians are highly successful in this field and have many of their own drone factories," the Serbian President added.

The joint press conference was preceded by talks between the two delegations and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and Ukraine’s State Service on Food Safety and Consumer Protection.

Last night, Vucic hosted a dinner in Zelenskyy’s honour following his arrival at Belgrade airport, where he was welcomed by Serbian Energy and Mining Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic.

Although Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, it is the only European country, alongside Belarus, that has not imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Brussels has frequently criticized the Serbian authorities and urged Belgrade to "align its foreign policy with the foreign policy of the EU".

Belgrade has also faced criticism from the Kremlin over the export of weapons and ammunition that, according to Russian intelligence services, have ended up in the hands of the Ukrainian military.

Serbian President Vucic attended the Ukraine-Southeast Europe in July, although he did not sign the joint declaration calling for increased pressure on Russia.

Earlier, Ukrainian Parliament Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk visited Belgrade at the invitation of Serbian Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic to attend a conference of EU candidate countries.

The visit and Stefanchuk’s remarks that Serbs are independent people, "not Little Russians" prompted strong reactions from Russia.