The Serbian Foreign Minister, Ivica Dacic, denied claims that Serbia joined the Crimea Platform, an international diplomatic initiative for consultation and coordination formed at the invitation of Ukraine.
“Serbia did not join the Crimean Platform but the Prime Minister (Ana Brnabić) did participate in that meeting via a video call. However, she did not voice her support, nor did we accept the text of the Crimean platform document, because it goes beyond the framework that is acceptable to us “, said Dacic for Pink Television.
The Crimea Platform was a diplomatic summit initiated by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August 2021 and attended by delegations from 46 countries. It is designed to be an international coordination mechanism to restore Russia–Ukraine relations by means of reversing the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. The protection of the human rights of Crimean Tatars, environmental degradation and the stifling of trade in the Black and Azov Sea region are also matters discussed at the summit.
Speaking about yesterday’s meeting with Russian Ambassador, Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko, Dacic said that Serbia’s position on that platform, as well as the declaration from Athens, was met with positive comments in Russia, but that the meeting was not organized for that reason.
“He (the ambassador) handed me a letter from Reshetnikov, my Russian counterpart. We are co-chairmen of the mixed Committee for Cooperation. The letter mainly talked about economic and other issues and organizing meetings. I suggested that they set the dates for the official visits, i.e. talks between the co-presidents, other ministers and of course for the opportunity to meet with the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov,” Dacic added.
Dacic also spoke about the declaration on Ukraine, which was agreed by the Western Balkan countries, Moldova, Ukraine and EU representatives a few days earlier in Athens, reminding that at Serbia’s request, the part related to imposing sanctions against Russia was removed from the declaration, as was the name of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the part related to war crimes.
Regarding the meeting between the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić and the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Athens and the claims that Serbia will give Ukraine ammunition and weapons in exchange for Ukraine not recognizing Kosovo’s independence, Dacic called that “nonsense and an insult to Ukraine”.
(Danas, 25.08.2023)
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