JOVANOVIĆ: SERB PEOPLE MUST BE AWARE OF PRESSURE, BUT NOT YIELD

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 16 /SRNA/ – The announced military exercises of Albania, Croatia, and the so-called Kosovo are part of the global Western pressure on Serbs throughout the Balkans, and the Serb people, not only in Serbia and Republika Srpska, must be aware of this, but should not change their strategic course as an independent political factor, assessed former FR Yugoslavia Foreign Minister Živadin Jovanović in a statement to SRNA.

"That alliance of Albania, Croatia, and the so-called Kosovo in the field of defense and security is an anti-Serb project and part of the broader global pressure of the West, NATO, and the EU on Serbia, Republika Srpska, and the entire Serb people," Jovanović said. He pointed out that Croatia, Albania, and the so-called Kosovo are only adding on to this broader and far-reaching pressure of Western factors against the Serb people in the Balkans. Jovanović emphasized that this anti-Serb strategy is long-term and has its history, but under the new conditions of global tensions it is taking on concrete forms. "I believe that all of this is motivated by the desire for the Serb people, Serbia, and Republika Srpska to give up their independent role as a factor of peace and development in the Balkans, and to be, under pressure, `voluntarily` placed in a subservient position," said Jovanović, also the director of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals. He considers that the announced military exercises are primarily trial balloons to test how the Serbs, Serbia, and Republika Srpska will react, while on the other hand, no one is interested in "playing with fire in the Balkans". Jovanović stressed that such plans have no chance in today's conditions of profound global changes toward a multipolar world order, as they are directed against historical inevitabilities. "The Serb people in the Balkans, not only in Serbia and Republika Srpska, must be aware of what is happening, but under no circumstances should they change their strategic course as an independent political factor that makes decisions, both domestically and internationally, exclusively in the interest of Serbs and their state-forming structures," Jovanović stated. Within the military alliance of Albania, Croatia, and Priština, multinational or NATO exercises will be held in various areas, and the plan for their implementation is expected to be finalized in September. Albania, Croatia, and Priština signed a memorandum on cooperation in the field of defense and security on March 18 in Tirana.