STORY: Serbian president blasts West's double standards in int'l relations
DATELINE: Sept. 23, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:08
LOCATION: UN Headquarters
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of UNGA Hall
2. various of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic walking to rostrum
3. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, Serbian President
4. various of delegates
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, Serbian President

STORYLINE:

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday blasted the West's double standards in handling international relations.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Vucic criticised U.S. President Joe Biden's double standards in his speech at the General Debate.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, Serbian President
"Here, in this hall, only two days ago, we could hear from the president of the United States the most important principle in relations between the countries -- the respect for their territorial integrity and sovereignty, and only as the third most important factor, he mentioned human rights. And, it seemed to me that everybody in this hall could support that. I, as the president of Serbia, supported that with unhidden jubilance. The only problem in all that was a fact that a few hours after his speech I had to see, in these premises, the president of the so-called Kosovo, who is considered by the most powerful part of the West the president of an independent country, originated, by the way, by the secession of the territory of the Republic of Serbia."

For the first time, unprecedented in world history, the most powerful 19 countries of NATO made the decision, without the involvement of the UN Security Council, to brutally attack and punish a sovereign country on European soil, said Vucic, referring to NATO's bombing of the former Yugoslavia in 1999.

NATO said that the issue of Kosovo is a democratic issue and that it would be resolved in accordance with the UN Charter and other international law documents. But in 2008, the illegal decision on the secession of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia was made without a referendum or any other democratic forms, he said.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, Serbian President
"I would like to inform you that Serbia had not stepped foot in the territory of some other country, nor it jeopardized its existence. But 24 years ago, the most powerful and the strongest 19 (countries of NATO) had no mercy with small Serbia. Even when they had finished this job, they said that the issue of Kosovo is a democratic issue and that it would be resolved in accordance with the UN Charter and other international law documents. And then, contrary to all, but absolutely all documents of the international public law, it occurred to them in 2008 to support the independence of the so-called Kosovo.
The illegal decision on the secession of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia was made a decade after the war conflict in our country had ended, without a referendum or any other democratic form for declaring their stances for the citizens of Serbia or at least in Kosovo itself.
Nevertheless, worse than anything is that all those who committed aggression against the Republic of Serbia lecture today about territorial integrity of Ukraine, as if we did not support the integrity of Ukraine. And we do support it and we will keep supporting it, because we do not change our politics and we do not change our principles, regardless of centuries-long traditional friendship with the Russian Federation.
But when we ask them about the territorial integrity of the Republic of Serbia, and about what they had done to my country, the answer is the one that all of you, representatives of smaller countries in the world, heard on countless occasions: do not go back in the past, look toward the future because it is the only way for your country to make progress.
Principles do not change from one circumstance to another. Principles do not apply only on the strong ones, they apply to all. If that's not the case, then, they are no longer principles. And that is why I believe that in the modern world there will either be principles, and the same rules will apply to all, or, as the world, we will end up in the deepest divisions in our history, in the most difficult conflicts and in problems we will not manage to cope with."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from UN Headquarters.
(XHTV)