UN Photo/Cia Pak Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia, addresses the general debate of the 72nd Session of the General Assembly.
September 2024.
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Serbia is not a servant of Russia or the USA! We will never give up our freedom and independence: This is the historic speech of President Vučić in New York (VIDEO)
https://informer.rs/vesti/politika/946448/vucic-govor
The speech of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly was widely covered in pro-government tabloids. “Historic,” “free,” and “brave” are just some of the epithets that appeared in Serbian media during those days, referring to the President’s address.
The UN General Assembly represents a unique opportunity for heads of state and government from around the world to gather in one place. Although it is an almost routine event that occurs once a year, the media aligned with the authorities in Serbia consistently portray the General Assembly as a venue where Vučić will confront the West and defend Serbia’s vital interests.
Additionally, both the government-aligned media and the president himself insist annually that the Serbian president’s speech generates great enthusiasm among world leaders, even though recordings show that he spoke in an almost empty hall. The speeches that usually attract attention at these meetings are those of leaders from countries currently relevant due to specific political or security situations, as well as speeches from the leaders of major powers.
While the Serbian president’s speech is presented in pro-government tabloids as historically and factually supported, it contains certain manipulations of facts. One such manipulation is the claim that Serbia is among the founding countries of the United Nations.
“We all gathered here from around the world for what we would call noble but, above all, selfish reasons. Almost always, the leaders of even the most powerful countries speak here in front of you, supposedly addressing you, but in reality, they are only speaking to their public opinion, essentially indifferent to the concerns that truly plague the world today. I am not very different myself, but today I will not present only Serbia, the founder of the UN, and its successes, nor our high growth rate, because I will have the opportunity to boast about the results we have achieved in my own country. And by the way, I know that all of you here are not very interested in that,” Vučić said.
The fact is that Serbia did not exist as an independent international legal entity at the time of the founding of the United Nations on April 25, 1945. Among the 50 founding states of the UN was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, of which Serbia was one of six republics. Serbia was admitted to UN membership only in November 2000, by a decision of the UN General Assembly.
In his speech, the President of Serbia, as he does every year, mentioned the year 1999 and the NATO bombing of Serbia, framing it as hypocrisy and a precedent that explains why events have unfolded as they have 25 years later.
“The representative of my country, Vladislav Jovanović, an exceptional Serbian diplomat highly respected in this esteemed assembly, made an urgent appeal on March 24, 1999, when the aggression against Serbia began in the UN Security Council, urging all countries to categorically oppose the aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Look at how his words resonate 25 years later: ‘If the aggression is not stopped, the precedent of such unpunished aggression will, sooner or later, lead to aggression against a number of other states, smaller and medium-sized.’ The real question is: What is the next country?” Vučić stated.
Vučić sees the hypocrisy of the West—though he does not name them directly—in the current situation in Kosovo. “Those who committed aggression against Serbia and attempted to separate part of its territory are still trying today, convincing us that this is the only democratic and meaningful solution, attempting to detach Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia, while daily arming what is now referred to as the so-called Kosovo Security Forces, which will soon transform into an army of Albanians on Serbian territory,” Vučić said, adding that while everyone discusses Ukraine, no one addresses the position of Serbia.
Although in this part of his speech he refers to the ongoing crisis in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Vučić does not mention the repression against Albanians from 1998/99 but emotionally presents the NATO bombings as the aggression of larger countries against smaller ones.
Author: Sofija Popović
