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Here, I am referring to all the countries that recognize the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo, and without any basis whatsoever in international legal documents attempted to seize 14 percent of the territory of the Republic of Serbia. To many of you, this may sound like a distant past, but the wounds inflicted on international public law are becoming ever deeper and more severe. To be completely precise, the order based on respect for the UN Charter and the law founded upon it no longer exists. It was destroyed by those who tore apart the territories of other countries for the sake of their own political and economic interests. They did so unscrupulously, recklessly, and shamelessly. Do you know, do you know, esteemed friends, what was, in fact, the reason, the sole official and formal reason, 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 disaster. The humanitarian disaster did not occur, and I have still not managed to hear or see where a similar example has occurred anywhere in the world. The attack against the small, yet free, and freedom-loving country Serbia, of which I am the proud President, was carried out with the intention of finally destroying the UN order established after World War II and of formally and informally confirming the dominance of a that-time unison Western world of United States of America and Europe. Do you know which countries, dear friends, took part in decision-making in the UN Security Council to bomb an independent and sovereign country that had attacked no other country? Just to add, not a single soldier, not a single police officer from Serbia had set foot on the territory of any other country, and yet a decision was made. I am certain that most of you, dear friends, who are among those best informed about world politics, no longer remember much of these either, and especially not the fact of who in the UNSC voted 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 in the first place, and to make things even worse, no one ever even attempted to make such a decision. They were so arrogant and so powerful that they trampled everything in their path, from the Clinton administration to the administration of numerous European countries. That is precisely why Serbia supposed the actions of the administration of President Donald Trump and sees in his work an opportunity for establishing a more just order in the world and more responsible attitude toward Serbia as a close American ally from both world wars. And what they did not know or understand at the time was this: they trampled 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 against Serbia are enormous, and particularly visible here in the UN General Assembly. Admittedly, they are even more visible on the numerous battlefields around the world. Why? Well, because the principles of any kind no longer exist. Those who once trampled them have no moral right to speak about them. And to make the situation even worse, and the hypocrisy even more visible, it is precisely those very people and those very countries who have assumed the position of supreme teacher of morale and every kind of protection of the values of the modern world. The most difficult thing for us in Serbia is when we see in our surroundings the resurgence of Nazism elevated to the position of social prominence, especially in the Republic of Croatia, which is proud of its Nazi past and of the use of Nazi slogans and symbols today. The Serbian people, as people who suffered the most from Nazi hands, cannot accept the revival of the most terrible ghosts from the past responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma in monstrous concentration camps like Jasenovac. That is precisely why moral lectures coming from such sources are completely unacceptable to the Serbian people in Serbia. In addition, for four and a half years now, I have been listening to lectures on how many in the West remain last beacon of democracy in the world, the protectors not of Ukraine's but of the rules and principles of international law. And when they raise their voices thinking that they are being highly moral and that their positions are the only right ones, we simply smile and ask ourselves: And how did you treat Kosovo and Metohia and the territorial integrity of Serbia, which is guaranteed by the UN Charter and the resolution of the UNSC 1244? To that, either there is no answer, or they supposedly give us some well-intentioned advice and tell us not to look to the past, but to the future. When we ask them, do you also say to Ukraine that the territories they are fighting for are not important? We end the pointless conversation and move on to another subject. And I want to warn all of you, all of you here who belong to the Global South, pay the utmost attention while signing all the agreements with great powers. That is how we signed the famous Brussels Agreement in 2013, wishing to resolve problems between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and Metohia by compromise. All the obligations that were to be met by Serbia have been met, and the only one that was to be met by Albanians, the one about the establishment of the community of Serb municipalities, has not been met to this day. It is interesting that the agreement was accepted not only in the presence of the EU, but it was also confirmed with the signature of the EU, but it meant actually nothing. As the President of Serbia, for ten years I have been facing all possible tricks and pressures to give up on full implementation of what was signed. It is a lesson to us Serbs, but also to all others in the world who want to protect their country. In spite of everything, Serbia will defend its country, its territorial integrity, the UN Charter, the UN Security Council resolution 1244. I wish to thank individually every 107 countries, states that have not recognized the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo. We know that many of you, that many of those states, have been subjected to pressure, and we know that maintaining a principled position is sometimes far more difficult than it appears from the outside. Thank you for being consistent in not recognizing the independence of a part of Serbia's territory. Excellencies, Serbia is on its European path, and it will have to do many more things in order to become a full-fledged member of the EU.
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