State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Ivica Toncev:”Unacceptable statements of the Ukrainian Ambassador”

Toncev Ivica“The fact that the Republic of Serbia pursues a balanced, fair and consistent foreign policy which has been proven by steady improvement of its reputation and position at the international scene does not seem to suit everyone. Some Ambassadors are even encouraged to behave in an utterly undiplomatic or even impolite manner towards the host country.

The main role of Ambassadors is to do their best to promote bilateral relations, primarily political and economic, but other forms of cooperation as well.

The Ambassador of Ukraine to Serbia, His Excellency Olekandr Aleksandrovych seems to keep forgetting this since all his diplomatic activity has focused on fruitless attempts at undermining the relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Russian Federation.

In the latest in a series of his scandalous interviews, he stated that the Republic of Serbia was not pursuing an independent foreign policy, i.e. that it is a tool in the hands of Russia which seeks to destabilize the entire region of the Western Balkans and consequently “destroy Europe”.

He advanced totally unsubstantiated claims about the alleged Serbian factor which destabilizes Macedonia, creates tensions with Croatia and about the involvement of Serbian extremists in an attempted coup in Montenegro and separatist tendencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Of course, he did not miss an opportunity to repeat a notorious statement of a Western diplomat on “sitting on two chairs”.

It is good that the interview did not last longer because Serbia may have been accused of causing the Second World War, in collusion with Moscow, of course.

Since Ambassador Aleksandrovych keeps politicizing the involvement of Serbian volunteers in the armed conflicts in eastern Ukraine, I would like to recall that that the nationals of Ukraine participated in the wars in the territory of former SFRY, which the Republic of Serbia has never held against Ukraine. Serbia respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine and remains committed to the policy of promoting bilateral relations.

In view that repeated suggestions by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia to the Ambassador of Ukraine to redirect his energies towards the goals set in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations have been to no avail, I take this opportunity to remind his Ministry and the Government of Ukraine of the inadmissibility of such behaviour which might compel us to undertake appropriate measures reserved for such situations”, reads the statement by the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.