Visit by the President of the Republic of Slovenia

President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic met today with President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor, with whom he discussed bilateral relations, European integration of Serbia, but also important regional processes, as well as the Brdo-Brioni Summit to be held on Monday.

President Vucic said that the high level of bilateral relations was affirmed at the meeting with President Pahor and pointed out that he had presented Serbia's positions on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija to his Slovenian counterpart, and the position that the issue needed to be resolved by compromise, through dialogue, because a frozen conflict was never a good solution, which could still be seen very well today in the examples of the escalation of such conflicts.

"I believe that our position is based on respect for the principles of international law, on solid legal grounds. Our position is not an easy one, it is clear that we have different views on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija", President Vucic said and reiterated that Serbia wanted to continue the EU-facilitated dialogue with Pristina. He emphasized that Slovenia's role in the region of the Western Balkans had always been important for Serbia.

“Slovenia will be holding the EU Presidency from July and the support of Slovenia on our EU path is important for us. Preserving peace and stability is of key importance to us. Serbia has recorded not only good, but excellent economic progress at the European level, a high growth rate and it is crucial that we dedicate ourselves to economic and reforms in the field of the rule of law. I believe that with our partners from the region we can achieve better results. We have good talks and a good dialogue on the position of Serbs in Slovenia and Slovenes in Serbia", President Vucic emphasized and added that the 6th session of the Governments of Serbia and Slovenia is expected to be held. He stated that Serbia was on the European path and that it strongly supported all others on that path, having nothing against a comprehensive approach in the process of enlargement of the Union.

"We consider that it is important that we all take care of the whole region together because we live together, side by side. We have nothing against a comprehensive approach. Of course, you will always have an approach based on progress but we have nothing against a more significant geopolitical approach to the Western Balkans", President Vucic said.

President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor stated that he was in favour of a geopolitical approach of the EU in the enlargement process and the rapid accession of the Western Balkans, because only that, as he said, could ensure peace, security and stability. He stated that there were currently two types of worrying fatigue - on the one hand, fatigue from EU enlargement, and on the other, in many countries of the Western Balkans, fatigue in the implementation of reforms and a decline in confidence in the European perspective.

"This is not in the interest of the EU or the citizens of the Western Balkans. With a fresh strategy, which would emphasize the geopolitical approach to enlargement, we want to warn Brussels that only the rapid accession of all countries in the region can maintain peace, security and stability”, Slovenian President Pahor underlined and added that he believed that it would be less complicated to solve all the remaining problems after joining the EU. He said that some issues, which were sensitive, bilateral ones, could be resolved more easily or would become irrelevant as a result of a joint accession to the Union, and expressed hope that Brussels would understand Slovenia's message.

"If you look at the map of Europe, you see that the Western Balkans is surrounded by EU countries. If you look at the absorption capacity, this is only about 10 million people, which is not a big challenge and problem for the EU", the Slovenian President emphasized.

Source: www.predsednik.rs
Photo: Dimitrije Goll

14 May 2021