Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday that he would keep his word by visiting Russia to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, as he promised his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Agence France-Presse reported.
“Eight months ago (...) I told President Putin in a phone call that I would come to Moscow on May 9. The whole world was silent. They thought it was far away“, the Serbian president said from the United States. “My word is binding, a word given not only in an international framework, but also to my people, to everyone. No one else should go, no one else should pay the price. "I will go," assured Vucic, who has not been to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Serbia, a candidate for European Union membership since 2012 and whose majority of trade is with the EU, has been maintaining a delicate balance between Brussels and Moscow for almost three years, AFP notes.
On Thursday, Vucic assured that "Serbia is on the European path and will not give up this European path."
“I am ready to endure any kind of punishment, sanctions, whatever they want. The word I gave is worth something,” he said.
Leaders from about 20 countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, are expected to attend the grand military parade on Moscow's Red Square. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik is also expected to attend the ceremony.
Belgrade, which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Russians since February 2022, is almost entirely dependent on Moscow for its gas supplies, the agency recalls.
Serbia is currently negotiating a new multi-year gas agreement with Russia. The current one expires at the end of May.
The EU has often expressed concern about Belgrade's ties with Moscow and has regularly called on Serbia to align its foreign and security policies with its own.
Serbia has never joined European sanctions against Moscow, and several of its ministers have regularly visited Russia in recent years, Agence France-Presse notes.