The Socialist Movement of Serbia, which initiated the consideration of the BRICS resolution by the parliament, plans to hold a congress in the fall with the participation of Serbian experts and representatives of member countries to familiarize themselves with the conditions and benefits of membership in the organization, deputy chairman of the movement Bojan Torbica said.
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On August 28, the “Movement of Socialists” submitted a draft resolution to the Assembly (parliament) of Serbia for consideration on the need to open a broad public dialogue that “Serbia’s European path has a clear alternative, embodied in the process of joining the BRICS organization.” It is expected that the relevant committee of the Assembly will start considering the document on the 20th of September.
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“We are a coalition partner of the Serbian Progressive Party. This is one of the steps in our program, which we, the Movement of Socialists, have been promoting since its inception. Two pillars of our policy are support for the Serbian World and cooperation with organizations such as BRICS” – the deputy chairman of the movement said.
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“Our leader Aleksander Vulin has always suggested that the citizens of Serbia eventually go to a referendum and say: we know what the EU is, what the BRICS are, we want to be part of one or the other. Therefore, we are cooperating with the Institute for Public Strategic Dialogue, we hope that we will collect intellectuals and specialists from Serbia, and in late September or early October we will hold a congress with participants from the BRICS countries on the topic “The world a month after the BRICS summit,” Torbitsa said.
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According to him, the Serbian public is not sufficiently informed about what the BRICS really are, apart from media reports that focus more on European integration.
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“We wrote a resolution proposing to recognize that the European path has reached a dead end, which is obvious. For 20 years Serbia and its citizens have been deceived that they can become part of the EU, but we see that no, not a single state has joined for 10 years. At the last summit, it was said that the EU should prepare for the admission of new members only by 2030,” the deputy of the Assembly said.
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“There is an alternative that is getting stronger every day, and now this is the most relevant economic and political process – joining the BRICS. In its composition, the countries that have traditionally been friends of Yugoslavia and Serbia, none of the founding countries of the BRICS recognized the independence of Kosovo, not one none of them blackmailed the authorities of Serbia and its citizens. None of them demanded a part of the territory of Serbia and the extradition of Serbian heroes who defended the people during the wars of the 1990s,” Torbitsa emphasized.
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According to the leadership of the Movement of Socialists, the time has come for the Serbian public to learn from specialists what BRICS is, what are the chances of Belgrade to join, what are the disadvantages and advantages of the organization.
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“Pushing Serbia into the EU against the will of a large part of the citizens did not bring results. I’m not sure that at the moment more than 20% of citizens support European integration. They need to be informed what BRICS is, what it offers and what we can get, what is the New Development Bank (New Development Bank), whether BRICS stands for a single currency, whether this currency will be new, whether there will be de-dollarization. And most importantly, whether BRICS will guarantee its members and partner countries that sanctions will not be imposed,” the deputy of the Assembly specified.
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He recalled that the restrictive measures of the West, now directed against the Russian Federation, were fully felt by the citizens of Serbia after the collapse of Yugoslavia, and the citizens of Cuba have been suffering sanctions for 70 years, and “we no longer want anyone to be limited economically and politically in this way” .