The session of the United Nations General Assembly is an exceptional opportunity for the voice of the “Western Balkans to be stronger and better heard”, declared Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić after the numerous meetings he had during his first day in New York.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, who is in New York as a member of the Serbian delegation, also held several bilateral meetings.
“During the first day, on the sidelines of the general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, I had bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Nepal, “Armenia, Burkina Faso and the United Arab Emirates, with whom I discussed the further improvement of bilateral relations,” Dačić wrote on his Instagram profile.
He added that he had benefited from meetings with colleagues from Hungary, Luxembourg, Palestine, Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as from the working breakfast with the heads of diplomacy of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, of Albania, Croatia and Slovenia, offered by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, for an exchange of views.
Vučić said he would strongly defend Serbia’s position in his speech on Thursday.
“We started this morning at the UN. We will show up on Thursday and firmly defend Serbia’s position. I am convinced that the citizens of our country will be proud of their leadership,” Vučić said in a post on his Instagram profile.
In the coming days, the Serbian president’s next meetings are expected to focus on the situation in Kosovo and the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina following the failure of last week’s round of negotiations in Brussels.
Vučić will have separate meetings with UN Secretary-General Guterres and European Union Special Representative for Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajčak.
He will also participate in an informal lunch for Western Balkan leaders organized by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, and in the traditional reception of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, hosted by US President Joseph Biden and the first lady.
Vučić is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with the presidents of South Korea, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Suriname and other African and Asian countries, many of which have not recognized Kosovo’s independence. Lobbying against recognition of Kosovo by third countries contradicts agreements negotiated within the EU-backed Kosovo-Serbia dialogue process.
The Serbian president will address the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday and will also meet with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič.
(Milena Antonijević | Euractiv.rs)