BELGRADE (Sputnik) – Russia is the leading player in the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIL or Daesh in Arabic), Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.
"Russia, like the rest, needs no fight other than the one it is currently leading to defeat the Islamic State. Up to now, the fight was hesitant and selective, and for the most part directed against officials rather than terrorists," Nikolic said.
Commenting on longstanding Western calls for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Serbian leader stressed that "someone chosen by the people deserves to lead the state."
The Balkan head of state posited that a mistake committed within Turkey’s leadership caused the November 24 downing of a Russian aircraft by a Turkish after over Syria.
"I know that Russia is a great country and can find the right solution to every problem," Nikolic added.
Belgrade hosts a two-day Ministerial Council conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that began on Thursday. The annual conference provides the foreign ministers of the 57 OSCE participating states and 11 partner states with an opportunity to assess past year’s activities and to address global security issues.
On Wednesday, NATO invited Montenegro to start accession talks to become the 29th member of the alliance. Now the 28 NATO member states will need to ratify the invitation in their parliaments.
"We call for ensuring that NATO does not create any blockade of the Russian borders," Nicolic said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Belgrade.
He added that no threat is emanating from the Russian territory while the world faces real threats like international terrorism.
NATO’s invitation is the latest expansion of the US-led military bloc since it accepted Albania and Croatia in 2009. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Macedonia have all made strides toward accession, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
