Visiting Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (L, front) and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic (R, front) review the honor guards in Belgrade, Serbia, Oct. 2, 2017. Greece will support Serbia as well as all other Balkan countries who wish to become part of the European Union (EU), but these countries must respect international right, as well as European principles and heritage, said Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos during his visit to Serbia on Monday. (Xinhua/Nemanja Cabric)
BELGRADE, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Greece will support Serbia as well as all other Balkan countries who wish to become part of the European Union (EU), but these countries must respect international right, as well as European principles and heritage, said Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos during his visit to Serbia on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference after meeting his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, he said that Greece is ready to provide Serbia with all necessary help in order for the Balkan country to become a member of the EU, and that the country achieved good results in that direction.
He continued that Greece also looks positively on the accession of other countries such as Turkey, Albania and Macedonia, but insisted that these countries must "adhere to international right and show respect towards European culture and civilization" in order to be ready to become "the south-eastern branch of the EU".
"We Greeks will not accept the Balkans to become a problematic space within the EU, with all the individual characteristics. This is absolutely unacceptable. Each nation is obliged to respect democratic legitimacy, international right, European heritage and the principles of the EU -- and cannot become a member whilst bringing in its own problems to be solved within the EU," Pavlopoulos said.
When it comes to Serbia's dispute with Kosovo, Serbia's southern province that unilaterally declared independence in 2008, he said that the relations between the two sides require full adherence to the "text and the spirit" of the resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations Resolution 1244 adopted in 1999 that put Kosovo under interim UN administration, and authorized a peacekeeping force in the province led by the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Greece is one of the five EU member countries along with Romania, Spain, Slovakia and Cyprus, who joined Serbia in rejecting to recognize the independence of Kosovo.
Vucic thanked Pavlopoulos for Greece's support to Serbia's territorial integrity and sovereignty and said that there is a high level of accordance between the views of the two countries on the major regional issues.
He also thanked for the support and assistance during the process of the European integration so far.
