Vucic Meets Macron at Elysee Palace for 80 Minutes
Serbia's president spent an hour and 20 minutes with Macron at the Elysee Palace, ahead of his address at the Space Summit in Paris, where he announced a small satellite program.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic spent two days in Paris on September 9 and 10, where he had dinner with Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and spoke with the French president for an hour and 20 minutes, twice as long as Macron spent with any other guest that evening.
The visit coincided with the first International Space Summit, held at Macron’s initiative in the Grand Palais and bringing together nearly 120 foreign delegations: heads of state and government, representatives of international organizations, lawmakers, scientists, astronauts, military officials and private sector representatives.
Vucic arrived at the Elysee Palace on the evening of September 9 for the state dinner Macron hosted for the heads of state and government attending the summit. The bilateral talks between the two presidents took place right after dinner and, according to Vucic, lasted an hour and 20 minutes, while Macron’s other conversations that evening lasted around 15 minutes each.
“We had a long conversation with Macron. We analyzed the current situation in the world and in Europe. I think we further strengthened the strategic partnership between Serbia and France. We also talked about Serbia’s European path, as well as about our region and the dialogue with Pristina,” Vucic told reporters in Paris.
The president described the conversation as personal, not only as a working meeting.
“Macron and I have become friends over these years. He took me to greet his wife as well, who was working this evening. I walked through every room of the Elysee Palace. The conversation was also emotional, because both of us know this is the last time we are talking as presidents,” Vucic said.
Space Summit at the Grand Palais
On the second day of the visit, at 10 a.m. on September 10, the summit was opened at the Grand Palais by Macron, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also addressed the participants. At 11:20 a.m., Vucic took part in the first round table, titled “The Future of Space for a Fast-Changing World,” alongside the presidents of Vietnam and Bulgaria and the prime minister of Luxembourg.
In a live broadcast from Paris that morning, before the panel, the president explained why Serbia was taking part in a gathering whose main players are powers with their own space programs.
“We cannot compete with big countries in launches and everything else. But we can have our own small satellites, we can have sensors, we can do everything that matters when it comes to agriculture and climate change. Besides agriculture and climate change, there is the defense industry, there are natural disasters and the ability to prevent and monitor them,” Vucic said, adding that the summit was “extremely important for us.”
The president also met with the president of Vietnam in Paris, where they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries.
Elections called before the trip to Paris
The trip to Paris began on the same day that Vucic, just hours before departure, dissolved the National Assembly and called snap parliamentary elections for October 25. The president therefore arrived in the French capital as acting head of state in a caretaker capacity, ahead of a campaign that formally begins days after his return to Belgrade.
Neither B92, Kurir, Tanjug, nor Vecernje novosti, whose reports served as material for this article, linked the dissolution of the Assembly and the trip to the Elysee Palace in the same story. Still, the order is clear from the timeline those sources reported: the decision to call elections was made at noon on September 9 in Belgrade, and the dinner at Macron’s residence took place that same evening in Paris.
