Vučić calls Lavrov, talks about Kosovo and Bosnia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić spoke on the phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the “announced sanctions” of the US against the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS).

Vučić said that he had a “very good and meaningful conversation” with Lavrov and claimed that Kosovo is trying to deny the main Serb party in Kosovo, the Serbian List, participation in the February 9 elections.
“From Minister Lavrov, as a representative of a UN member state, I learned that Pristina, in violation of all acts of public international law, is trying to prevent the Serbian List from participating in the upcoming elections.”

The Central Election Commission in Kosovo has not certified the Serbian List, following concerns raised by representatives of the ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement, that the party does not recognize the state of Kosovo, and does not refer to it by its official name, but as “Kosovo and Metohija”.

However, this decision is not final as the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel will be able to review this.

Vučić said that he had also spoken with Lavrov about Bosnia and Herzegovina, claiming that they agreed that the Dayton Agreement preserves peace and stability in this country. However, both Belgrade and Moscow give full support to the separatist actions against the Dayton Agreement by the nationalist president of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik.

“We discussed and expressed our concern about the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska and agreed that full compliance with the Dayton Peace Agreement is the best way to maintain peace and stability,” Vučić said.

In mid-December, Vučić announced that the United States would impose sanctions “within a few days” on the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), because Russian companies own a majority of its shares.

On this topic, he said that he spoke with Lavrov, warning that he would cooperate with the Russians on this issue.

“The topic of conversation was the announced sanctions against NIS and a meeting of experts from Serbia and Russia was to be organized as soon as the US sanctions are announced.”
“We also discussed all other important issues of our bilateral cooperation, confirmed the friendship between our countries and expressed confidence that with our greatest commitment we can increase trade exchange between Serbia and Russia,” Vučić wrote.
Serbia continues to agree with Russia on key issues despite warnings and concerns about foreign policy miscoordination from the European Union, where it officially says it wants to join. /The Geopost/