Remarks to the press by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia with regard to the 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia
Today, on 25th anniversary of NATO aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia, we witnessed another act of diplomatic aggression – from France, current NATO member. This time it happened at the UN Security Council. Aggression was made against freedom of speech and freedom of expression in the highest UN body. France and other NATO members used procedural maneuvers in order to prevent the UN Security Council meeting on the issue of the utmost importance, which has serious repercussions for Serbia, the current situation in Kosovo, as well as for the entire region of Western Balkans.
As you know, the situation in Kosovo, in particular for the Serbs living in the region, is getting worse every day. The Security Council even held an urgent meeting on this issue on 8 February, 2024. Our aim today was to discuss the root causes of the endless series of escalations in the region in order to prevent them from happening in the future, either in Western Balkans or in other parts of the world. And the cause for that was NATO aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia, which lasted 78 days. The North Atlantic Alliance did not get any mandate from the UN Security Council. Despite the so-called reasons, which you hear from Alliance members today, the main reason is the unwillingness to admit one of the hugest mistakes in NATO history in a fear to be exposed in front of the world community as a number of aggressive and invasive states trying to build neo-colonial system across the entire world.
We have already seen many examples of it, not only in Yugoslavia, but in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, and finally Ukraine. It looks like our NATO colleagues are not willing to hear what we were going to say. They are scared to hear this, in particular scared of their legal responsibility, because they have not yet accounted for what they did in former Yugoslavia. Also, we have to note that the current UN Security Council meeting was confirmed by the Japanese Presidency of UNSC at the beginning of March. Thus, we stay assured that a huge part of responsibility lies on Japan for its inability as President [of the Council] to accomplish its duties properly. And of course, it was a complete shame and disgrace to play this spectacle in front of the Serbian Prime Minister, which is absolutely inadmissible.
I thank you.
