Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin on September 9 discussed the upcoming BRICS summit with Sergei Shoigu, formerly Russia's defense minister, who now serves as the secretary of the Security Council.
President Vladimir Putin invited Serbia to attend the BRICS summit, which is scheduled to be held on October 22-24 in the Russian city of Kazan.
Vulin, who was criticized for traveling to Russia last week and meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, met with Shoigu in Moscow after Putin invited Serbia to take part in a meeting in St. Petersburg of high security representatives of BRICS and partner countries organized by Russia's Security Council ahead of the summit.
BRICS unites Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa and has expanded since its founding to include other major emerging economies including the United Arab Emirates and Iran.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on September 5 that Serbia would have "important guests from abroad" during the BRICS summit in October and said he would not be able to attend. A day later he said he would decide by the middle of next month whether to accept Putin’s invitation.
SEE ALSO: Vucic's Delicate Balancing ActVulin thanked Shoigu for the invitation to participate in the St. Petersburg meeting. He and Shoigu also discussed "a wide range of topics of common interest to Serbia and the Russian Federation," the Serbian government said in a statement.
One of the topics was the situation in Kosovo, which Vulin said at the meeting was "on the verge of conflict" and thanked Russia for respecting Serbia's territorial integrity. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, and Russia supports Belgrade's position.
The latest tensions involved border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo that were closed over the weekend after blockades on the Serbian side organized in response to decisions by the government of Kosovo to close parallel Serbian institutions in the north of the country. The border crossings reopened on September 7 after the activists took down their blockades.
SEE ALSO: Kosovo Reopens Border Crossings After Serbian Activists End BlockadesVulin told Putin during their September 4 meeting in Vladivostok that Serbia will "never become a NATO member, will never impose sanctions on the Russian Federation, and will never allow any anti-Russian actions to be carried out from its territory."
EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano responded by saying that maintaining or increasing ties with Russia amid its full-scale war in Ukraine “is not compatible with EU values and is not compatible with the EU accession process."