"Serbia won't take sides in Ukraine conflict"

"Serbia won't take sides in Ukraine conflict"

BELGRADE -- President Tomislav Nikolić has said an upcoming donor conference to help with the flood relief effort "can be expected to raise several hundred million euros."

However, he noted that these funds will not be enough to cover the damage Serbia suffered during the catastrophic flooding that hit the country in May.

"People are getting impatient because August is close and they are still not sleeping in their homes. The government is facing a crisis, but they will have to borrow to finance post-flood recovery," he told Bloomberg in an interview.

Nikolić said that he and Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency Chairman Bakir Izetbegović "will meet international donors at a conference in Brussels next week to drum up loans for the flood-affected areas."

“It appears we can expect hundreds of millions of euros from that conference, although the grants we receive won’t cover the entire damage,” Nikolić said.

Speaking about a new arrangement with the IMF, he said the government "should work to resume loan talks as a stamp of approval for its policies."

Bloomberg's article noted that the IMF said it will visit Serbia after the government has revised the budget to ensure spending on floods recovery, in two or three months and that the cabinet postponed talks with the IMF to assess damages from the floods.

“Serbia is not in a situation, like some other countries, to proceed without the IMF,” Nikolić said.

When it comes to the Ukraine crisis, the president said Serbia would continue to strive to remain uninvolved.

“It would be very unpleasant if we were forced to take sides. That would even divide...