N1SRP — broadcast
20260808 103000 UTC
479 transcript segments
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[00:00:00] The President and I discussed you. bilateral
[00:00:03] cooperation,
[00:00:06] about things that can strengthen our infrastructure,
[00:00:09] our ports and railway
[00:00:13] stations and railways in countries, and the economy and security,
[00:00:16] in general there are
[00:00:19] concrete development infrastructure projects such as
[00:00:23] reconstruction projects
[00:00:25] Ukraine that we can implement together. This
[00:00:29] would be a significant contribution to preserving
[00:00:32] existing jobs and creating new, truly decent jobs
[00:00:36] in Ukraine and Serbia. We have the area of food security, no matter what
[00:00:40] happens, people must have every
[00:00:43] opportunity to live.
[00:00:46] We also discussed the challenges facing
[00:00:49] Ukraine. Not a single
[00:00:52] thermal power plant was left unharmed, not attacked
[00:00:56] in those Russian attacks, because the missiles were
[00:01:00] aimed at making the lives of Ukrainians
[00:01:02] unbearable.
[00:01:05] Any engagement with partners in the field of energy is of enormous
[00:01:09] importance. There are ways to strengthen cooperation in the field
[00:01:13] of energy. We should work very
[00:01:16] hard to
[00:01:19] reach a free trade agreement.
[00:01:22] These negotiations are progressing, which is positive, and it would be
[00:01:26] really good if we could prepare everything by the end of this
[00:01:30] year, so that we can conclude a free trade agreement
[00:01:33] between Ukraine and Serbia.
[00:01:37] We have good relations with the European Union, and we would
[00:01:39] really
[00:01:42] welcome the acceleration of Serbia's path to
[00:01:46] the European Union.
[00:01:50] Our relations are based on mutual
[00:01:52] respect.
[00:01:54] And we want every nation in Europe to receive a strong signal from the European
[00:01:58] Union that it is needed by the European Union,
[00:02:02] that it cannot afford, cannot afford to lose anyone.
[00:02:06] Mr. President, we also discussed diplomacy
[00:02:08] and all diplomatic opportunities that would help
[00:02:12] bring this war to
[00:02:13] an end.
[00:02:17] It is important for people all over the world to know
[00:02:21] that it is true, it is a fact that we want
[00:02:24] a dignified peace, that every opportunity should
[00:02:27] be used for the sake of peace and guaranteeing security, every
[00:02:31] available opportunity in Washington,
[00:02:35] services, and without a doubt we are working on in Beijing, in capitals in
[00:02:38] Europe, among our partners in the Middle East, Gulf
[00:02:42] countries, and all other capitals and
[00:02:45] major cities around the world
[00:02:48] that could influence these processes. I want to
[00:02:51] thank everyone in Serbia, but truly everyone who
[00:02:55] has
[00:02:58] welcomed our people
[00:03:01] with attention and care. We will
[00:03:05] never forget your kindness towards our
[00:03:09] Ukrainians, and I thank you all. Thank you,
[00:03:12] Aleksandar, for this invitation, for
[00:03:16] your support, and I wish your country peace
[00:03:19] and only peace, because we understand that it is the most precious
[00:03:23] thing that people
[00:03:36] Thank you for this opportunity. My first question for you, Mr. President, is your
[00:03:40] assessment of why Putin simply wants to continue his
[00:03:43] aggression and this war, or perhaps you
[00:03:47] see some signals that he
[00:03:50] is ready for a real negotiation process? And for
[00:03:53] you, Mr. President, from your perspective, what or who could
[00:03:56] force him to engage in
[00:04:00] concrete and real
[00:04:01] talks?
[00:04:04] Mr. President, you mentioned the challenges due to what happened
[00:04:07] last night, another ballistic missile attack on the Kyiv
[00:04:10] region.
[00:04:12] Three people were killed, including a child who was only
[00:04:16] three years old. That
[00:04:18] child, unfortunately, never lived in
[00:04:21] peace.
[00:04:25] What do your partners and other
[00:04:28] countries in the world say? How do they respond to your
[00:04:32] request regarding these missiles? Can
[00:04:35] anyone send you those
[00:04:38] missiles in some time? Is there
[00:04:41] any alternative for intercepting these? But
[00:04:44] one option was to destroy these launchers.
[00:04:48] What does Ukraine need to be able to destroy
[00:04:51] these? Ukraine, so that
[00:04:54] this defense
[00:05:09] I cannot give serious estimates and assumptions
[00:05:13] about the fact of whether
[00:05:16] the war will end soon or not so soon. Without
[00:05:20] a doubt, I
[00:05:22] believe,
[00:05:25] and the entire international community, including Serbia, our entire nation, we
[00:05:29] would all like to see this war end as soon as
[00:05:33] possible. But if you ask me, as
[00:05:37] a political veteran, I can tell
[00:05:39] you
[00:05:41] that I am not sure
[00:05:44] when it comes to that, and
[00:05:47] I am quite afraid that we will have another difficult
[00:05:50] winter.
[00:05:52] Mostly your people, but everyone else around
[00:05:56] the world to
[00:05:58] a certain
[00:06:01] extent, to a certain degree. But on the other hand, I hope,
[00:06:05] I just
[00:06:05] hope
[00:06:11] without any facts to
[00:06:14] support, to buttress this hope that it will end
[00:06:18] tomorrow. But I don't see how that could happen, to be honest.
[00:06:21] I apologize for having to be honest
[00:06:25] and open, but I just wanted to add one more thing
[00:06:28] that Volodymyr just
[00:06:31] mentioned.
[00:06:34] This free trade agreement is of utmost
[00:06:37] importance
[00:06:39] to Ukraine. It is of utmost importance to our country. We will...
[00:06:44] work proactively, and I think we will quickly and efficiently
[00:06:46] deliver it to our people. On the other hand,
[00:06:49] I forgot to say that we
[00:06:53] promised the President
[00:06:56] of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last time
[00:07:00] in Ukraine, even when we were still in Odesa,
[00:07:04] that we would take care of a small garden
[00:07:08] which was
[00:07:10] quite
[00:07:13] exposed to attacks during the war. And that is something we will
[00:07:16] do. We will invest a lot in it, and
[00:07:19] I believe that the Ukrainian
[00:07:22] people will appreciate such
[00:07:48] discussed the reconstruction of our
[00:07:51] state, not only after the war, but during the war.
[00:07:54] How much needs to be rebuilt when it comes
[00:07:58] to energy and other supply systems.
[00:08:01] Help for one city, regarding that,
[00:08:05] our team already developed a plan overnight,
[00:08:09] which we presented, and we really appreciate such a positive
[00:08:17] ballistic
[00:08:19] missiles,
[00:08:25] that is our life. That has been our life since the beginning of the war. You remember
[00:08:28] that very well. The first attack with
[00:08:31] missiles when Ukraine had nothing
[00:08:35] to repel those
[00:08:37] attacks.
[00:08:39] It is a very arduous task, how to...
[00:08:53] The primary manufacturer is America. Can they help? We are working with them. Will they
[00:08:56] allocate missiles for, say, a month? We have an agreement, but
[00:08:59] is that enough?
[00:09:01] 2026. I can't give
[00:09:06] you an exact number.
[00:09:10] with due respect to Germany and
[00:09:42] Poland, they both
[00:09:45] helped us, but who else could help you again? Now I'm
[00:09:49] telling you, who else? We are working
[00:09:52] with the Nordic countries, with the Netherlands. They are constantly
[00:09:56] helping us. I cannot say exactly how many
[00:10:00] missiles they are providing, but I am in daily contact
[00:10:03] with countries in Europe, in the Middle
[00:10:06] East. What can Ukraine get, and through this
[00:10:09] American package, these additional missiles?
[00:10:13] We are simply at a level where all
[00:10:17] institutions
[00:10:22] must work in that direction, not only the president, everyone must
[00:10:25] work in that direction, otherwise we will reach
[00:10:28] a shortage.
[00:10:34] Besides European colleagues, I just mentioned the Middle East. I'll be
[00:10:38] honest, South Korea and Japan could also help.
[00:10:41] Did they help us with air
[00:10:45] defense systems? No, because of their internal
[00:10:48] legislation and their constitutions, we
[00:10:51] did not receive relevant assistance.
[00:11:04] buy, but until now we haven't had that opportunity,
[00:11:08] even though we are discussing it. Another
[00:11:12] option is to have your own ballistic missiles,
[00:11:15] and you know that we are working on our own
[00:11:18] ballistic missiles. We are working with Germany, with
[00:11:22] the Netherlands, with Norwegian
[00:11:26] partners, with Denmark. We are working with all these
[00:11:27] countries. Italy, the company
[00:11:31] Leonardo, to build
[00:11:34] our own
[00:11:35] system.
[00:11:41] The Ukrainian company
[00:11:45] is a leader, here is Firepoint. I can now reveal
[00:11:48] their name. The private sector that is able to
[00:11:51] produce ballistic missiles.
[00:11:55] just mentioned, we will support them because they are the only ones
[00:11:59] involved, and we need to have
[00:12:01] another state company. I cannot reveal the name of that
[00:12:05] company. I mentioned Firepoint because they
[00:12:08] announced it themselves, and
[00:12:11] now it's too late to conceal and hide it, because there will be attacks on them
[00:12:15] anyway. But these are the companies that are working,
[00:12:18] and we will make sure they are not
[00:12:21] destroyed by the enemy. These are our own ballistic capabilities.
[00:12:33] We started working on another project,
[00:12:36] it's too early to say anything about it, but we have some
[00:12:39] success there as well, to better protect our
[00:12:43] sky, besides military
[00:12:46] targets in Russia and their
[00:12:48] systems.
[00:12:55] a special task for specific, specific
[00:13:14] Vučić. Both of you mentioned the European
[00:13:17] Union.
[00:13:19] In the overview of what you discussed,
[00:13:23] earlier this year you discussed with and
[00:13:26] advocated with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, that the
[00:13:30] European Union should allow those
[00:13:34] countries that qualify for it to become
[00:13:37] members of the single market, not
[00:13:40] as a substitute, but as a step
[00:13:44] in the meantime on the path to full membership. Have you discussed this
[00:13:47] with your Ukrainian partners? Can you give us a general picture
[00:13:51] of the state of that
[00:13:55] debate? And a short question for the President of Ukraine,
[00:13:58] Zelenskyy.
[00:14:01] You partially touched on it, but can you tell
[00:14:05] us, Europeans, what we can specifically
[00:14:08] do to help you
[00:14:11] to kill more Russians, more Russian
[00:14:14] soldiers? Of course, I also ask you whether you
[00:14:17] discussed
[00:14:20] cooperation in the field
[00:14:33] any
[00:14:36] military cooperation today
[00:14:37] and at this
[00:14:41] time. What will
[00:14:43] happen
[00:14:45] when the war ends is another matter. And
[00:14:49] as for killing, I hope the killing will
[00:14:53] stop.
[00:14:55] To answer what was, I would say, the dominant topic for us
[00:14:59] last night in
[00:15:00] our discussions.
[00:15:04] We talked for a long time. I presented our
[00:15:07] position
[00:15:09] to President Zelenskyy. I fully understand
[00:15:12] Ukraine's position on that issue. Ukraine
[00:15:16] wants to open all clusters as quickly as possible.
[00:15:19] Ukraine wants fast membership in the European
[00:15:23] Union.
[00:15:27] I told President Zelenskyy
[00:15:29] that
[00:15:31] I understand all of that, and I understand of course that kind of
[00:15:34] enthusiasm.
[00:15:37] as President of Serbia, as someone who is a political veteran, I do not see at
[00:15:41] this moment
[00:15:43] the possibility, first of all for Serbia—I was not talking about Ukraine—so first
[00:15:47] of all for Serbia, to soon become a member of the European
[00:15:49] Union for numerous political
[00:15:52] reasons. I fully stand behind
[00:15:55] what I wrote together with the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi
[00:15:59] Rama. I think it is important for our
[00:16:02] region. I told President Zelenskyy that I think it would
[00:16:06] be important, good even for Ukraine, Moldova, and
[00:16:10] other, as they say, Eastern
[00:16:13] countries. And I think that is the reality. I don't believe,
[00:16:17] to be completely open, that
[00:16:21] all Europeans will be benevolent even towards
[00:16:25] Ukrainian membership. As you can see,
[00:16:28] I speak openly about No, they always find
[00:16:31] someone. For us, they will find some
[00:16:34] Croats, Bulgarians, Dutch, whoever.
[00:16:37] For Ukrainians, they will find some others. But I
[00:16:41] do not see at this moment the possibility for
[00:16:43] this to be realistically implemented.
[00:16:47] that, I understood all the hopes
[00:16:51] of President Zelenskyy. We wish Ukraine all the best, and as far as
[00:16:54] we are concerned, we will never as a country create a problem.
[00:16:58] We will never say, "First accept us, we started earlier,
[00:17:02] don't accept Ukraine." Ukraine will never
[00:17:06] have such a problem, at least not with a small
[00:17:10] country like Serbia. So, as far
[00:17:13] as we are concerned, I think it is terribly important for us. I was just looking at
[00:17:17] the data, dear Mihal, for the first
[00:17:20] half of this year, in terms of growth rate, we are at 3.5%,
[00:17:24] currently the first country in Europe according to Eurostat. Some others have not
[00:17:28] yet submitted data. The average Eurozone is
[00:17:30] 0.8%, Europe as a whole is 1%
[00:17:34] on average. So we are first in terms of
[00:17:38] growth rate in the first half of the year. Next year we expect
[00:17:40] a growth rate of Expo. I am grateful to Ukraine for
[00:17:44] coming to Expo, for participating in Expo. These are
[00:17:48] key topics for us. I spoke much more broadly than
[00:17:52] this about what I think exactly about everything and why
[00:17:55] I think the idea of a single market is of crucial
[00:17:58] importance for all of us, because I think
[00:18:01] that Ukraine has many natural resources, it has valuable
[00:18:05] people who can give a lot
[00:18:07] to Europe. So I
[00:18:11] think the same for Serbia. But if you ask me if
[00:18:15] I truly believe that there will be
[00:18:18] unanimity in Europe
[00:18:21] about accelerating European integration, I
[00:18:24] do not believe that.
[00:18:27] Unfortunately, it turned out that my skepticism was
[00:18:29] justified. Unfortunately, it turned out,
[00:18:33] unfortunately, it turned out that I was right, as you know.
[00:18:36] And it's not just a question of, as they will say,
[00:18:40] a merit-based concept, that is, whether someone measures something by your merits or not, because also, as
[00:18:43] you know, we have fulfilled four out of
[00:18:47] four conditions that they gave us now for opening cluster
[00:18:51] 3. We fulfilled all four, the cluster was not opened,
[00:18:54] because there are always some countries that will say something.
[00:18:58] I just wish Ukraine all the best, but
[00:19:01] I am a realist.
[00:19:05] I think that the mood
[00:19:07] in Europe is that the political crisis is so
[00:19:11] deep in certain member states, some of
[00:19:14] the most important member states, that it will
[00:19:17] be very, very difficult to achieve anything
[00:19:20] substantial in the coming period. And that is why I
[00:19:23] said, we Serbs
[00:19:26] will engage, dedicate ourselves, and
[00:19:29] focus on
[00:19:31] economic
[00:19:33] growth,
[00:19:36] to make as many free trade agreements as possible, to
[00:19:39] cooperate with all countries on a bilateral
[00:19:43] basis to help further
[00:19:53] ambition about the European path,
[00:19:55] and he, as far as I
[00:19:59] understood, wants to open all
[00:20:02] clusters as soon as possible. He considers that the biggest and most important challenge for
[00:20:05] Ukraine, taking into account
[00:20:09] the war conflicts. So on that path, we wish him and
[00:20:13] his country all the best and much success. As far
[00:20:16] as Serbia is concerned, we will always fully support that, and without
[00:20:20] that, but you know we complain where Serbia is and
[00:20:23] why Serbia didn't get something. We don't have a problem with that. We understood
[00:20:27] the messages from certain member states long ago, with
[00:20:31] all gratitude to Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa for the enormous
[00:20:35] support they provided to us Serbs in the previous
[00:20:38] period, and for us that is not, to
[00:20:41] be completely honest, a particularly big question. And as for Ukraine,
[00:20:44] we talked for a long time, we talked for several hours last night,
[00:20:47] about this for the longest time.
[00:20:51] I truly think that the single market and open borders are the most important,
[00:20:55] but I understand Ukraine's enthusiasm and ambition,
[00:21:20] reality and enthusiasm
[00:21:24] are at stake when choosing the path towards
[00:21:26] the European Union. I understand Aleksandar's
[00:21:30] skepticism, which he shared with me yesterday quite in detail.
[00:21:34] Ukraine has no
[00:21:37] skepticism.
[00:21:42] It's just, how to tell you, we understand what
[00:21:45] Ukraine must be in the future. First, it's the path we took.
[00:22:20] And despite all that, we
[00:22:22] gained that status. I fight for it every day,
[00:22:26] and sometimes it can
[00:22:29] seem
[00:22:31] so far away and so unattainable, but
[00:22:35] we are making
[00:22:38] those dreams come true. There is unity in our
[00:22:41] state. We must not
[00:22:45] destroy that unity.
[00:22:49] And there is
[00:22:55] and they also have some internal issues
[00:22:58] when elections happen, some changes. Many,
[00:23:02] many are the issues that need to be
[00:23:04] balanced.
[00:23:12] done, so that we can open all that we want, but we must be
[00:23:15] confident, and I am confident that we can
[00:23:18] do it, no matter what lies
[00:23:22] ahead of us. When it comes to what is needed from
[00:23:25] Europe, I truly believe that
[00:23:29] we need more support, with all due
[00:23:31] respect to resolve and deal with
[00:23:35] financial
[00:23:36] challenges.
[00:23:39] There was a positive decision about 90 billion euros, and
[00:23:43] Aleksandar already thanked Ursula and
[00:23:46] António. They really helped
[00:23:50] us a lot, and I am also grateful
[00:23:53] to the leaders of the European Union who, no matter how
[00:23:56] difficult it was, found an opportunity to support
[00:24:00] Ukraine with this money. That is our
[00:24:04] survival.
[00:24:09] When we talk about how
[00:24:12] someone can help us, we need money. And we
[00:24:15] need to
[00:24:16] survive.
[00:24:29] It's cheaper to finance our military and
[00:24:33] defense equipment, so we have to fight for
[00:24:37] every penny every
[00:24:39] day.
[00:24:43] Something is still unknown, but I see a lot and I know a lot.
[00:24:46] We still need more
[00:24:50] money so that our defense
[00:24:53] industry can produce twice as much as it produces today. These
[00:24:57] are huge, huge sums of money, billions. Today, the
[00:25:01] President asked me that question, I shared it with him, and
[00:25:04] I will not reveal it to the media
[00:25:08] today. But Ukraine
[00:25:12] does not have the money that Russia uses for its
[00:25:15] war. We will not have it, but we have what...
[00:25:19] što...
[00:25:50] literally from every continent, including our close partners,
[00:25:54] these components reach
[00:25:58] Russia, then they strike and hit our
[00:26:01] people, and children
[00:26:04] die, civilians die,
[00:26:08] our warriors, our fighters die. So sanction
[00:26:11] Russian weapons and the supply of these
[00:26:15] components. That is first and
[00:26:18] foremost. They profit from it. They spend
[00:26:21] the profits on war. The war
[00:26:24] is important.
[00:26:26] It is also important that Russia is not given the opportunity to earn
[00:26:30] billions. Now we are talking about
[00:26:32] bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a serious matter, it is a serious
[00:26:36] problem. I apologize for returning
[00:26:39] again to ballistic missiles, but
[00:26:43] I discussed this with President Biden
[00:26:47] during the first year of this war. I persistently asked
[00:26:50] him to give me
[00:26:53] missiles and permission to produce those missiles. And I discussed it with our
[00:26:57] partners in the first year of the war, in the second, in the third
[00:27:01] year of the war.
[00:27:05] to cooperate in the military industry, to give us
[00:27:09] some permits, but some issues are still unresolved. Now we have
[00:27:12] agreed with President Trump that we will get these permits, but
[00:27:16] imagine
[00:27:18] if we had gotten them four years
[00:27:20] ago. Now we would be
[00:27:23] building Patriots. We could
[00:27:27] share them with Europeans. We would have all
[00:27:30] of that. I am absolutely
[00:27:33] convinced of all that, but now we are still
[00:27:37] in paperwork.
[00:27:41] It is not a paper missile that hits our people, kills
[00:27:45] them.
[00:27:47] I said that the Americans gave something, then there are the Europeans.
[00:28:01] Zelenskyy, Serbia and Ukraine are simultaneously negotiating
[00:28:05] membership in the European Union. In the meantime, cooperation
[00:28:08] in that process has been formalized. How do you see whether
[00:28:12] Serbia and Ukraine could be partners instead of rivals in that process?
[00:28:15] And if you allow me one more question, can
[00:28:19] Serbia, can the citizens of Serbia still count on Ukraine's firm
[00:28:22] stance on the non-recognition of the unilaterally declared
[00:28:35] Thank you. First of all, we are partners,
[00:28:38] and that is a fact. The free trade agreement,
[00:28:42] first of all, we are partners, that is true, and the free trade agreement, all other
[00:28:46] things we talked about with the President yesterday and today, and
[00:28:49] it is true that we had extremely frank discussions,
[00:28:53] completely frank and open discussions. We talked about many
[00:28:56] things that are not for the public, but it is
[00:28:59] very important that
[00:29:03] we have a vision of partnership in these matters. That is very
[00:29:07] important. We respect the territorial integrity of our
[00:29:10] partners, we respect international law. That is our
[00:29:14] position.
[00:29:17] Regarding what you said about the unilaterally declared
[00:29:19] independence of Kosovo, that remains
[00:29:22] unchanged. We have always emphasized this, and
[00:29:25] Ukraine's policy has not changed. We are equally
[00:29:29] grateful to our partners for respecting territorial.
[00:29:42] Serbia's stance also remains unchanged, especially in
[00:29:46] parliament. We are truly partners, not
[00:29:50] rivals, so some would push us into that
[00:29:54] kind of rivalry,
[00:29:56] we have, especially recently with some others,
[00:30:00] absolutely given up on that.
[00:30:02] "As for Ukraine, we have never been rivals on that
[00:30:06] issue, but truly sincere partners and
[00:30:08] friends, and everything that President Zelensky
[00:30:12] said, he said it correctly and thank
[00:30:16] him for using it as an opportunity,
[00:30:19] and we will continue to cooperate, I believe
[00:30:23] that there are numerous areas
[00:30:27] in which our cooperation can be doubled
[00:30:31] and tripled." Moreover, if you look at the trade
[00:30:34] exchange in '25 and '26 compared to what we
[00:30:37] had in '20, '21, so
[00:30:40] both before the war and after that, that is
[00:30:44] '22, '23, that is a huge difference,
[00:30:47] and I believe that in that regard, our trade
[00:30:51] exchange and exchange in the service sector can only