Vucic: Serbia's position on Ukraine unchanged

BELGRADE - Serbia's position on Ukraine remains unchanged, but Serbia will not break off its friendly ties with Russia, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said.

"Serbia is a sovereign and independent state and makes its decisions on its own. We are on our European path, but we are not eroding or breaking off our relations and friendly ties with Russia," Vucic told the RTS late Tuesday ahead of his visits to France and Russia.

Previously, Vucic has said that Serbia supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty, but that it will not impose sanctions on Russia.

Maintaining that position is not an easy thing to do, but we have managed to do that so far, building a more favourable, stronger position for our Serbia at the same time, he said.

Vucic will start a two-day visit to France on Wednesday, where he will be welcomed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls, with a visit to Moscow scheduled for July 7-8.

Vucic has announced that his discussions with French officials will address bilateral relations, economic cooperation and European integrations.

He also announced that he will with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev discuss bilateral cooperation and the most important matters in the relations between Serbia and Russia.

"Our relations are friendly, but they are having problems with us due to our debt, and we, too, have certain questions. I hope that we can resolve many of those things and I believe that we will improve our relations further in the future," the Serbian prime minister noted.

Photo Tanjug, S.Radovanovic