26.12.2019.
Minister Vulin: Vučić never avoids antagonising
“I cannot accept that Aleksandar Vučić avoids antagonising anyone, not even the West”, defence minister Aleksandar Vulin told the National Assembly responding to Serbian Radical Party MP Vojislav Šešelj. You know how much he has been attacked, from how many sides he has been attacked, you know that these street riots are not without the support of the West. You know very well that every meeting between him and Vladimir Putin, Xi Jingping, draws very turbulent reactions from the West. You know that he is the only man in Europe and the only politician in this part of the world who had the courage to say that he would not impose sanctions on Russia, who had the courage to say – yes, I will buy everything I need from the East when it comes to arms, thus exposing myself to the danger of undergoing the sanctions. I do not know, they may impose sanctions on us for everything we bought. It is very possible. What could we do, we were not guided by that. You know that he is the only man who loudly said that he would never participate in the anti-Russian hysteria, the defence minister said.
Minister Vulin emphasised that “we want to cooperate, to learn, to work, and this is a way for our military to thrive and the only way for our military to strengthen”. “The equality sign cannot be put in front of the Government led by the Advance Party and those who were before us. By no means. In no way can there be an equal sign for any equality. We take care only and exclusively about the Serb interests making such an army.”
He drew attention to another important detail. “Until 2012, the Russian ambassador did not enter the Ministry of Defence. You know, it would be just as crazy as if you say that the US ambassador never enters the Ministry of Defence. You cannot ignore the world's largest powers, you have to talk to each of them. That is what they did. This is the first time that the CSTO has been mentioned in the strategy documents, where we clearly state that we want to cooperate with them and we are already implementing it. And for you to know, this year we have had two military exercises with CSTO which has never happened before. With the NATO Pact we had three military exercises. With the Russian Federation we had six military exercises as well as with the USA. Not to mention the dozens of activities we have bilaterally with different countries. We will have 36 joint activities with Belarus next year. Belarus has more joint activities only with Russia and no one else in the world. We cannot say that we are neighbouring countries and that we are that close. We are talking about the political orientation of the free peoples who behave like this. Next year I look forward to a historical military exercise with the People's Republic of China, or the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China. It has never happened before. This speaks about China that is not a member of any military bloc. It speaks about the changed position of our state and our military”, Minister Vulin said.
