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Vučić: Serbia is ready to send firefighting helicopters to North Macedonia

Vučić: Serbia is ready to send firefighting helicopters to North Macedonia
Belgrade, 3 August 2021 (MIA) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that Serbia is ready to send its firefighting choppers if Skopje deems it necessary, which is stipulated in the Open Balkan Initiative. He has also stated that he’s not concerned with what individuals in the West think of the initiative if it’s good for Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania, and the wellbeing of our citizens, MIA’s Belgrade correspondent says. “If Skopje needs help putting out the fires, we’ve decided and agreed to use our firefighting choppers, because they can carry 1,200 liters of water. I hope the situation has improved,” Vučić stated after a visit to oversee the final stages of reconstruction and building of the Serbian Clinical Center in Belgrade. He was asked to comment on reactions from the most powerful Western countries to the Open Balkan Initiative and what he has been told by German Secretary of State Miguel Berger, who also visited Belgrade, Pristina and Sarajevo. “We had all-encompassing conversations with Berger, and our positions concerning the Belgrade-Pristina issue are different, and we do not have absolutely the same positions about Open Balkan. I wouldn’t like to comment on the reasons, but they seem clear to me. We will not give up on what the essence of European values and liberties is, which is freedom of movement and the flow of goods, services and capital,” Vučić stated. The President said that these are political and economic values that contribute to the growth of each of our countries and that good agreements have been signed. The opinions of some people in the West do matter, Vučić pointed out, but what we think and do is more important and it should benefit the people. dk/ba/