Vucic: Region needs stronger economic integration

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has called on the countries of the Western Balkan region to step up economic integration efforts, observing that it is in the best interest of all, because separate and feuding, they will remain rather small markets.

"In the political sense we do not need 'brotherhood and unity', but we do need a rational and close cooperation in all areas, from infrastructure projects to cooperation in third markets," Vucic said in an interview for Banja Luka-based Nezavisne Novine.

The Serbian prime minister says he sincerely believes that, regardless of all events from the past, the region can turn to the future, reconciliation and a better life. "Every one of us works, or at least is attempting to work in the interests of their own people or the state, but only if all of us work together can we do good things for ourselves," said Vucic.

Asked whether he would attend the commemoration of 20 years since the crime of Srebrenica in July, the Serbian prime minister said that he condemned the "horrible crime" and respected every victim, adding, however, that it was too early to speak about concrete political events.

Photo Tanjug, D. Stankovic (archive photo)