Ponos tells pro-regime TV he opposes NATO membership

NEWS 24.03.202221:35
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Serbian opposition presidential candidate Zdravko Ponos said on Thursday that he is opposed to the country’s membership in NATO.

“I support good cooperation with NATO because it has forces in Kosovo but not Serbia’s membership in the Alliance,” he said on the pro-regime TV Pink which has reserved slots for both ruling and opposition parties during the election campaign.

TV Pink is known as a staunch supporter of the Serbian authorities and its negative reporting on the opposition. Its owner Zeljko Mitrovic was an official of one of the ruling parties under the Milosevic regime in the 1990s.

Ponos rejected claims that he was “a NATO general” during his service in the Serbian military as well as claims that he ordered the destruction of tanks as chief of general staff.

“My strongest link to NATO is my decoration for taking part in the war against NATO. Some people got apartments and I got a decoration which I am proud of,” the candidate of the United for Serbia’s Victory coalition said.

Ponos said he has no dilemma about Serbia joining the European Union and that it should develop cooperation with Russia, the United States and China. According to him, Serbia’s relations with neighboring countries are worse than in 2010. “That’s not just up to Serbia part of the responsibility lies with the Belgrade regime and Aleksandar Vucic who privatized foreign police leaving us with no benefits from it,” he said.

Ponos said that economic policy is up to the government, not the president and added that local entrepreneurs are second-class investors in Serbia and that the fact that farmers get subsidies before elections is a problem.