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Dacic: Maintaining relations with Russia and China is vital for Serbia

2024-03-21 15:18:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Dacic: Maintaining relations with Russia and China is vital for Serbia

Ivica Dacic

The Serbian Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, said on Thursday that maintaining relations with Russia and China is a "vital state interest" for Serbia.

Dacic met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Thursday in Moscow, where he thanked Russia for its stance and firm support for Serbia regarding its territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as for the Kosovo issue.

"It is vital for us to know that we have a safe voice in the Security Council," Dacic said.

Official Belgrade counts on the support of Russia and China in international organizations and institutions for not recognizing Kosovo as an independent state.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence - officially announced by Pristina in 2008 - but since 2011 it has been conducting dialogue with it, under the mediation of the European Union, for the normalization of neighboring relations.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said before the meeting that Russia is interested in "preventing new crises" in the Balkans, according to the Beta news agency.

Lavrov is said to have told Dacic that he wants to hear from him an assessment of the situation in the Balkans, which he assessed as "serious".

Lavrov also said that Russia values ??relations with Serbia and is satisfied with the way joint projects are being implemented, Beta reported.

"The tone of these relations has been set by the regular contacts of our presidents Vladimir Putin and Aleksandar Vu?i?. We are satisfied with the way the agreements are being implemented in the material sphere, trade, investments, humanitarian exchanges, as well as in the field of sports cooperation," Lavrov said, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.

Dacic traveled to the Russian capital at the invitation of Lavrov to watch a friendly soccer match between the national teams of Serbia and Russia on Thursday afternoon.

Serbia will become the first European national team to play a football match in Russia since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The European Football Federation (UEFA) announced on March 20 that it had approved a friendly match between the national teams of Russia and Serbia, as well as a match between Belgrade club Crvena Zvezda and Zenit St Petersburg.

"UEFA can confirm that it has approved these two friendly matches," UEFA said in a response to Radio Free Europe (REL).

UEFA added that the authorization is "administrative in nature". "We want to reiterate that friendly matches are not part of UEFA competitions and as such are not under UEFA's jurisdiction and responsibility. "Therefore, the possible participation of Russian teams in such friendly matches does not contradict the decision of the Executive Committee to suspend Russian teams from UEFA competitions," she added.

Beta reported that before the meeting with Dacic, Lavrov said that "the politicization of sports is unacceptable, even though the West, with the support of international officials, continues with such a policy and it does not seem that it will give it up soon."

While other European national teams, such as England or Poland, ignore the Russian national team, the Serbian national team follows state politics.

Official Belgrade has refused to become part of the European Union's sanctions – although it intends to join it – since the bloc began sanctioning Russia two years ago over its invasion of Ukraine.

Dacic, the current head of diplomacy in Serbia, publicly defends the position that Serbia does not impose sanctions on Russia, although it is requested by the European Union./ Rel