29.05.2020.
International Conference "The World after the Coronavirus"
President Vučić: Now is the time for us to continue to move forward with great self-confidence, but to take care of our every step.
Today, the President of the Republic and the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, opened the international conference "The World after the Coronavirus" at the MP’s Club in Belgrade.
The Minister of Defence, Aleksandar Vulin, attended the conference.
Addressing the participants, President Vučić pointed out that two topics are important for today's conference – the way we view relations in the world and what is Serbia's position in the future - how we will react to political, economic and health challenges. He pointed out that the whole of humanity wonders what our planet will look like the day after the pandemic is declared over, and added that "humanity has never before faced challenges“ that await us.- What does the world look like and has anything changed in the last few months? Yes, I think more things have changed in the last six months than in the previous 20 or 30 years. Those six months brought about dramatic changes in geopolitics, economic strength and the impact that individual countries, blocs and regions will have on world events in the future - said President Vučić adding that the impact that Covid-19, i.e. the coronavirus crisis, had on the economies of the most powerful countries and regions of the world, will show the great strength with which Germany and China are emerging from the pandemic in economic terms.
According to him, what we learned from the crisis is that Serbia remains on the European path, "but that we will not go against our allies and those who helped us during the pandemic."
- We will stick to our freedom and our independence. We will cooperate with both China and Russia. What is important for Serbia is a fast recovery of the European and world economies. We depend on the European economy the most, so a package of 750 billion is important, whatever the conditions are. The sooner they recover the better for Serbia. At the same time, the recovery of American economy and the accelerated growth of the Chinese and Russian economies are important to us. The faster they recover and grow the bigger our growth will be and we will manage to secure a better position for Serbia - said President Vučić.
Speaking about what is important for Serbia, the President emphasized that we should look at what is happening around us, because things are changing at a dramatic speed.
- Now is the time for us to continue to move forward with great self-confidence, but to take care of our every step, to "move out of the shadow of the greats", to stick to our principles. It is important to be careful about what words we say. It is important that we say and do whatever is needed and possible to strengthen our European path, regardless of the fact that it no longer depends solely on us or on reforms. It depends on the situation in the European Union, in addition to everything we have to do. We must strengthen our relations with the United States, with the People's Republic of China, which proved to be a sincere friend in the previous period, and with the Russian Federation, whose support in preserving our territorial wholeness and integrity we have always had - said President Vučić and added that at the regional level we should do everything we can "to open the borders, strengthen the market position of Serbia, further strengthen our economy and our economic influence in the region."
- I am convinced that our greatest success lies there and that by doing so, we can help our people who live outside the borders of our country as much as we can, but we must be very dedicated, cautious and really careful - concluded President Aleksandar Vučić.The conference was organized within the "Belgrade Strategic Dialogue" initiative, and the geopolitical, economic and health aspects of the coronavirus pandemic were analyzed in three thematic panels.
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, spoke at the first panel of today's conference, "Geopolitical Consequences of the Covid-19 Pandemic", which was dedicated to the geopolitical aspect of dealing with the pandemic, and the representatives of the Republic of Serbia and the diplomatic community participated in it.
In the second panel "Economy after the Pandemic", the economic consequences of the pandemic were discussed by the representatives of the state, business associations and businessmen. The third panel "Towards the Second Wave" is dedicated to the discussion of local and foreign experts on health challenges and the potential second wave of the pandemic.
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