Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that it is a lie that he had agreed to "surrender to Kosovo" by the end of the year and that he only wants to win more rights for Serbs in Kosovo through compromise. He added that Serbia has no draft solution for Kosovo, nor is it close to one.

“It is an outright lie and no one wants any part of it. We only want to provide you with as many rights as possible,” he stressed and added that the solution is nowhere in sight.  

When they get closer to finding a solution, he said he would notify “not Belgrade, but Mitrovica.”

He noted that he does not want to change the borders, but more rights for Serbs in Kosovo.  

“I want to ensure your right to life, liberty, work, education and movement,” the President said and added that he will fight “that our church remains our own and with our property, so we wouldn’t find ourselves in the situation that our churches get displaced.”

His idea was for Serbia to preserve its people, land and institutions, to preserve peace and establish bridges of friendship with Albanians and to look for answers.

“We must live together and next to each other. We must negotiate. Someone will have to reach an agreement with Albanians sometime in the future. There won’t be easy solutions for either side but more of our and their children will thus continue living here,” he said.  

During his speech, he said that the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was a great Serbian leader but that Serbia’s wishes at the time were unrealistic and that Serbia did not realise that it was not alone in the world and that no country can live without the rest of the world, and that is why it paid the price.