Serbian President calls for return to UN Charter principles in UNGA address

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić addressed the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, CE Report informs via the President of the Republic of Serbia's official website.

"Distinguished President of the General Assembly,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

The theme of this year’s session, “Renewing trust, managing transformation: delivering for all through a United Nations that is fit for purpose,” partly describes the moment in which we find ourselves. I agree that we need to renew trust in the United Nations, but I am not sure to what extent we can manage a transformation that has already taken place. The international system as we knew it has collapsed. It does not exist. Today, we are witnessing the birth of a new order, increasingly oriented around two main centres of power, alongside a growing number of strong regional actors, possessing significant political, economic, military and technological power and wishing to independently influence the shaping of their environment and broader global processes. We are entering a period of a more complex and less predictable distribution of power, in which the danger of potential conflicts is greater than it has been for decades. This is no longer only about classic armed conflicts between states. Conflicts are increasingly being waged through economic pressure, technological restrictions, the struggle for resources and markets, cyberattacks, disinformation and attempts to influence other societies. Cultural and identity divisions are also becoming increasingly pronounced, being politically instrumentalised and further deepening mistrust among peoples. The boundary between peace and conflict is becoming increasingly unclear, while the consequences of confrontation between major and regional powers are increasingly rapidly affecting even those states that are not directly participating in it.

For small and medium-sized states, such as the Republic of Serbia, such an environment represents an enormous challenge. The space for independent decision-making is narrowing, while pressures on states to choose one side are growing. At the same time, disagreements among the most powerful actors are increasingly paralysing institutions that should equally protect all states. The traditional system of international justice has been seriously undermined when interest becomes more important than law, and when the same rules do not apply to everyone.

The biggest problem of today is not a lack of rules and political principles, but their disregard in the past and in the present. You will notice, dear friends, that today, with the exception of several countries, everyone speaks and refers to the UN Charter, to the spirit of the Charter and to the principles on which the world order that was valid until recently was based. As if they want to tell us that this no longer applies, that what we did in the past when we destroyed and violated that Charter, thereby opening Pandora’s box which is impossible to close, and today we would like, without consequences, to return to the future. They want to revitalise respect for those same principles which powerful and great countries so brutally trampled upon.

How many times in the previous two days, from this very podium alone, could you hear calls and appeals for respect for the principles of international public law, particularly when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, while most of those countries shamelessly and ruthlessly remain silent about the fact that they themselves participated in trampling upon the Charter, destroying the foundations of the international legal system, and today they would, at any cost, like to return to those principles when they see that the more powerful and stronger have resorted to the same violations that they themselves carried out while they were the most powerful and strongest. Here I mean all the countries that recognised the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo and, without any basis in international legal documents, attempted to take away 14 percent of the territory of the Republic of Serbia. For many of you, this may sound like a distant past, but the wounds inflicted on international public law are becoming deeper and more serious. To be completely precise, the order of respect for the UN Charter and the law based on it no longer exists. It was destroyed by those who tore apart the territories of other countries for the sake of their political and economic interests. They did so unscrupulously, ruthlessly and shamelessly. Do you know, respected friends, what exactly was the reason, the only official and formal one, for the attack on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, carried out by 19 NATO countries? You will not believe it. They told us that they had attacked a sovereign, free and independent country in order to prevent a potential humanitarian catastrophe. The humanitarian catastrophe did not happen, and I have still not heard or seen where a similar example occurred in the world. The attack on that small, but free and freedom-loving country of Serbia, whose proud president I am, was carried out with the desire to finally destroy the UN order established after the Second World War, and to formally and informally confirm the dominance of the then-united Western world, America and Europe. Do you know which countries participated in the decision-making in the UN Security Council on the bombing of an independent and sovereign country that had not attacked any other country? Not a single soldier, not a single police officer from Serbia had set foot on the territory of any other country, and yet the decision was made. I am sure that most of you, dear friends, who are best acquainted with world politics, no longer remember much of this, and especially not the fact of who voted in the UN Security Council for that decision or perhaps in the General Assembly. Do not even try, because it is impossible for you to remember. Why? Because such a decision was never made, and what is even worse, no one ever even tried to make it. They were so arrogant and powerful that they trampled everything before them. From the Clinton administration to the administrations of numerous European countries. That is precisely why Serbia supports the actions of the administration of President Donald Trump and sees in his work a chance for the establishment of a fairer order in the world and a more responsible attitude towards Serbia as a close American ally in both world wars.

And what they did not know and understand at the time was that they trampled upon Serbia, but they did not defeat it. Serbia rose like a phoenix from the ashes. And today, through its example, it shows everyone in the world how the international public order is preserved and how international public law is protected. Nevertheless, the consequences of that brutal attack on Serbia are great and particularly visible here in the UN General Assembly. Admittedly, even more so on numerous battlefields around the world. Why? Because principles, whatever they may be, no longer exist. Those who once trampled upon them have no moral right to speak about them. To make the situation even worse, and the hypocrisy even more visible, it is precisely those people and those countries that assume the position of supreme teachers about morality and every kind of protection of the values of the modern world. For us in Serbia, it is most difficult when, in our neighbourhood, we see the renewed elevation of Nazism to a pedestal of social values, especially in the Republic of Croatia, which takes pride in its Nazi past and in the use of Nazi slogans and symbols today. The Serbian people, as the people who suffered the most at the hands of the Nazis, cannot accept the revival of the most terrible ghosts of the past responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma in monstrous concentration camps such as Jasenovac. That is precisely why the moral lectures we hear from such people are completely unacceptable to the Serbian people and Serbia.

Also, for four and a half years now, I have been listening to lectures about how many in the West remain the last beacon of democracy in the world, protectors not of Ukrainian, but of the rules and principles of international law, and when they raise their voices, thinking that they are very moral and that their positions are the only correct ones, we simply smile and ask ourselves: “And how did you treat Kosovo and Metohija and the territorial integrity of Serbia guaranteed by the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1244?” There is either no answer to that, or they supposedly benevolently tell us and advise us not to look into the past, but into the future. When we ask them: “Do you also tell Ukraine that the territories they are fighting for are not important?”, we end the meaningless conversation and move on to another topic. And I want to warn all of you. All of you here who belong to the Global South, pay attention when you sign all the agreements you sign with great powers. We signed the famous Brussels Agreement in 2013 in this way, with the desire to resolve the problems between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija through compromise. All the obligations that Serbia had have been fulfilled, while the only one that the Albanians had, concerning the establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities, has not been fulfilled to this day. It is interesting that the agreement was accepted, not only in the presence of, but also confirmed by the signature of the EU, but that meant nothing. As President of Serbia, for 10 years I have been faced with all possible tricks and pressures so that we would give up implementing what was signed. This is a lesson for us Serbs, but also for everyone else in the world who wants to protect their country. Despite everything, Serbia will defend its country, its territorial integrity, the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

I want to thank each of the 107 states individually that have not recognised the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo. We know that many of these states were subjected to pressure, and we know that maintaining a principled position is sometimes much more difficult than it appears from the outside. Thank you for your consistency in not recognising the independence of a part of the territory of Serbia.

Excellencies,

Serbia is on the European path and will have to do much more in order to become a full member of the EU. We are grateful to the European Union, especially to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council A. Kostić, for every kind of assistance they have provided and continue to provide to our country. Although full membership in the European Union remains a strategic priority, we cannot fail to notice the long-standing enlargement fatigue, both among certain EU member states and among candidate countries. Serbia’s European path is a good example of the length and complexity of this process. We obtained candidate status in 2012, and began accession negotiations as early as 2014, more than twelve years ago. Citizens of Serbia therefore rightly expect a clearer perspective and more concrete results from the process in which our country has been participating for more than a decade. In circumstances in which it is not certain that the next enlargement of the European Union will take place in the near future, we have sought to remain constructive and offer practical ways to overcome the existing deadlock. That is why we proposed that the Western Balkans be gradually included in the single European market and granted access to the Schengen area even before full membership in the European Union. This would not represent a substitute for membership, nor a lowering of our ambitions, but rather a concrete and pragmatic way forward, which would enable citizens and economies of the region to feel tangible benefits from European integration and help overcome the deadlock in which the enlargement process has remained for too long.

However, a stable and integrated Europe, of which Serbia is a part, and our European path do not mean giving up traditional friendships thanks to which Belgrade is one of the few European capitals from which you can fly directly to the United States of America, the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation. I owe particular gratitude for the support during the Covid pandemic, as well as for the enormous investments and investment in Serbia, to President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, with the hope that his talks with President Trump will be productive and contribute to stabilising the situation in the world. At the same time, we maintain ties with traditional friends and partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with whom we recently marked in Belgrade the 65th anniversary of the First Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, held in our capital in 1961. Our openness is an expression of our development strategy, our history and our understanding of the world. Serbia believes that states can have a clear course and their own interests, while at the same time not closing the door to those with whom they do not agree on everything. After all, a world in which we speak only with those who think the same as us would have little need for diplomacy. Freedom and independence in decision-making are the highest values for Serbia. We will not restore trust through grand declarations if, after them, we continue to act as before.

We must anticipate the consequences of a world in which force is once again increasingly openly presented as the most reliable instrument of policy, in which military budgets are growing, conflicts are multiplying, arms control mechanisms are weakening, and channels of communication are disappearing precisely when they are most needed. That is why we must ask the necessary question: where are the United Nations in such a world? The Security Council is often blocked precisely in crises in which it should be most active. Other parts of the UN system are facing financial pressures, overlapping competences, bureaucratisation and the justified demand of member states to see more concrete results.

These are real problems and there is no benefit in beautifying them, but it by no means follows that we need the United Nations less. We perhaps need them more than ever, but they must be more effective, more focused and more prepared to deal with the issues for which they were created. During the previous eight decades, states did not come to this building because they had the same interests, but because they understood that the cost of resolving disagreements through weapons was too high. That is why multilateralism emerged and why we are here today. Serbia supports the UN and reform of the UN system so that the Organisation can be more effective and better adapted to today’s reality. We advocate for a more representative UN Security Council, through greater representation of developing countries, particularly from the African continent, as well as through more inclusive regional representation and the inclusion of an additional seat for the Eastern European Group of countries. However, without a genuine return to the principles on which we have already agreed, I do not expect progress in terms of the concrete results of this Organisation.

Excellencies,

Peace is not the only test of our ability to manage change. We are in the midst of a technological transformation whose scope we are only beginning to understand. Artificial intelligence is already changing the economy, education, medicine, security, the labour market and the way states function. It can bring enormous benefits to humanity, but it can also deepen existing inequalities, enable new forms of manipulation and create security risks that just a few years ago we could not even imagine. During our leadership cycle in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence – GPAI, which Serbia chaired in 2025, one of our priorities was to ensure that technological progress remains connected with security, human rights, the rule of law, accountability and the reduction of the digital divide. The Belgrade Ministerial Declaration received the support of 44 member states and the European Union and confirmed the need for safe, sustainable and human-centred artificial intelligence.

The more powerful technology becomes, the more responsible the people who control it must be. We may have the most advanced algorithms, quantum computers, unmanned systems and artificial intelligence capable of processing in a few seconds what once took us years, but if at the same time we allow the basic rules of the international order to be applied selectively, then technological progress will not make the world safer. It will only make us technologically more advanced in a world that is politically increasingly unpredictable. If we want to responsibly manage the transformation that is coming, we must first strengthen the foundations on which the international order rests. These foundations are simple and concern the sovereign equality of states, respect for territorial integrity, the prohibition of the use of force except in cases clearly provided for by the UN Charter, and the obligation not to change the rules from case to case.

Distinguished colleagues,

Those of you who know Serbia and our region, as well as those of you who are less familiar with this part of the world, I wish to express my gratitude to all those who honoured Serbia by confirming their participation in the specialised EXPO 2027 exhibition, which will be held next year in Belgrade under the theme “Play for Humanity: Sport and Music for All”. In Belgrade, cultures, science, sport, technology, the economy and young people from all parts of the world will meet, and I look forward to welcoming a large number of countries that are in this hall today.

At the beginning, I spoke about trust and responsibility, and I would like to end there as well. We will not restore trust through grand declarations if, after them, we continue to behave as before. Each of us must start with our own decisions. Serbia is trying to do so by preserving peace in its neighbourhood, participating in peacekeeping missions far from its borders, helping others when they are threatened, talking with those with whom it disagrees and fulfilling the obligations it undertakes. What will restore trust in international law and in the United Nations Organisation is more actions such as these.

Thank you."

Photo: President of the Republic of Serbia