Vucic at summit: drops measures, messages on Kosovo and Zvicer
Serbia's president asked authorities not to apply reciprocal measures against Montenegrin citizens, called the turning back of travelers a poor call by his circle, and sent messages on Kosovo in Tivat.
- On the evening of June 4, from Tivat, Vucic asked Serbian authorities not to apply reciprocal measures against Montenegrin citizens, after which, according to reports, queues at the crossings disappeared.
- He called the turning back of travelers a poor judgment by his own circle and said they were not criminals.
- He dismissed a BIA warning about a security risk and said he felt safe.
- In the informal part of the summit he said he would not accept Kosovo's independence, but also that Serbia had not seized Montenegrin territory.
Serbia’s president Aleksandar Vucic asked on Wednesday evening, on the eve of the European Union and Western Balkans summit in Tivat, that the competent authorities stop applying reciprocal measures against Montenegrin citizens at border crossings. According to N1, the appeal was made at around 19:58, and soon afterward, the same source reports, there were no longer any queues at the crossings between Serbia and Montenegro.
The call came after a day of strained relations, during which travelers from Montenegro were stopped at several crossings. Vucic described that move as a mistake by his own circle, while the Montenegrin side, as already announced, holds a different position on who was on the list and why.
What did Vucic say about the returned travelers and the BIA warning?
By Vucic’s account, turning the travelers back was a poor call by people around him, and not a decision he stands behind. He claims those returned were not criminals. According to his figures, of 84 returned travelers, five had gone through some criminal proceeding, while the rest were activists and, as he put it, had no intention of destabilization. Those numbers are Vucic’s own claims. Montenegrin police had earlier spoken of 87 people it flagged as a security threat, which is a different assessment from the one offered by Serbia’s president.
Vucic also dismissed a warning from the Security Information Agency about a high security risk linked to the presence of Radoje Zvicer in Montenegro. He said he felt safe, noting that members of the Cobra unit were with him.
I ask our authorities not to act on the basis of reciprocity, but to let our brothers and sisters from Montenegro into Serbia.
Messages on Kosovo and relations with Montenegro
At the summit in Tivat, Vucic, according to available reports, held meetings with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
In the informal part of the gathering Serbia’s president made several points which, it should be stressed, represent his position rather than confirmed conclusions of the summit:
- that he will not accept the independence of Kosovo and Metohija,
- that he does not accept what he called historical falsifications,
- that it matters for two states to forgive one another at times,
- that Serbia, by his account, did not seize Montenegrin territory.
I will not accept the decision on the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.
The president added the following:
We did not seize the territory of Montenegro. It matters that we sometimes forgive one another.
As for the factual picture on the ground, only this is confirmed: travelers were stopped at the crossings during the day, and traffic was normalized after Vucic’s appeal. Everything else, from the estimate of how many were returned to the assessment of the security risk, remains open to differing interpretations from Belgrade and Podgorica. Will the Tivat summit ease the tone between the two states, or will the disputed assessments stay open even after it ends?
