On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals

During 20 years of its existence and work, the Belgrade Forum has affirmed itself as a proven patriotic organization, a kind of lighthouse for spreading the truth and as a symbol of resistance to attacks on Serbia and attempts at its total collapse and all-out occupation. In our public and in the diaspora, it is perceived as a source of credible facts, arguments, attitudes and assessments of the latest events in the country and the world, and as an institution of the greatest trust due to its principled attitudes, based on strategic and long-term interests of Serbia and the Serbian people. It is valued and respected, among numerous international organizations and associations abroad, as a credible factor of truth, a progressive organization that fights for peace and a better world, a world without war, aggression, threats, imposition, fraud, sabotage, exploiting people and subjugation of other states, in a word, for freedom and equality. All these twenty years, persistently and devotedly defends the interests of its country and its people and promotes the truth and facts about Serbia and the Serbian people, against the attacks of those who threaten them and who try to pursue their interests at the expense of Serbia and its citizens. With its public activities, the Belgrade Forum is trying to counteract the sea of misinformation, tendentious accusations and slander against our country and our people, but also to point out with its ideas and visions the true state interests and the directions in which the authorities should move.

Since its foundation, the Belgrade Forum has been actively cooperating with other international organizations in the world and "Think tank" organizations, with similar orientations and goals, from the Russian Federation, Canada, Brazil, China, Italy, Greece, Switzerland and other countries. It is a member of the World Peace Council based in Athens (Greece), and participates at numerous gatherings abroad.

Clear attitudes on national interest. The Belgrade Forum is consistently against, not only Serbia's membership in NATO, but also against NATO as an organization which is a "relic" of the "cold war" and a time of global confrontation. With the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact from the political scene, the reasons for the existence of NATO ceased to exist; and that alliance should has been dissolved, because today, in the time of a multipolar world, it seems completely anachronistic. Instead of being dissolved, from a defensive military alliance, NATO has turned into an offensive, aggressive military organization, and the most important exporter of instability in the world. As a "world policeman", without decisions of legal international organizations such as the UN, NATO has committed numerous aggressions around the world and left large number of victims and caused material damage to many countries. That is why the Belgrade Forum cooperates with all anti-NATO organizations in the world, considering the fact that FR Yugoslavia was one of the first countries in the world to experience NATO violence, aggression, cruelty, unprincipledness and immorality and suffered great human and material casualties in violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and in the attempt to seize Kosovo and Metohija by NATO.

The Belgrade Forum is not against Serbia's membership in the EU, but believes that Serbia should  join the EU only in the manner other member states joined. It is unacceptable for Serbia to be discriminated upon accession compared to other states, conditioned by the acceptance of the violent and illegal secession of its southern province of Kosovo and Metohija. Also, Serbia stands for the EU of equal and independent member states, and not for EU as a super state to which all member states would surrender their sovereignty and freedom and be reduced to satellites of several most powerful members, such as Germany, France and Italy.

The Belgrade Forum is also against plunderous privatizations and the seizure of national resources by global powers, which first carried out aggression against Yugoslavia and then took away its wealth and resources. The Belgrade Forum believes that national resources are inalienable and cannot be sold to foreigners, primarily food, energy, security, telecommunications, health, traffic and the like.

Patriot's house. As an independent, non-governmental, non-profit and non-partisan association of citizens, since its founding, the Forum brings together progressive intellectuals, sincere patriots, who, through their reputation and achieved results, speak best about the Forum, its goals and activities. Among the members of the Belgrade Forum are academics, former ministers, ambassadors, professors, diplomats, senior civil servants, officers, prominent businessmen, cultural representatives, journalists and many others. All of them selflessly engage in the Forum with the aim of advocating for the national and state interests of the Republic of Serbia and preserving its territorial integrity and sovereignty, for its political promotion, economic prosperity and cultural affirmation, for peace, equality and cooperation in the world based on international law and equal international cooperation.
The Forum also gathers numerous admirers and friends in the country, diaspora and abroad, among whom Peter Handke, the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, stands out. Handke   supports the work of the Forum, which he proved by his presence at some gatherings of the Belgrade Forum held on the occasion of the memory of the crime of NATO aggression against the FRY.

It should be reminded that after the overthrow of the patriotic government in 2000, the new government identified Serbia's interests with the interests of Western powers, promoting them instead of ours, suffocating all patriotic forces in Serbia and pursuing a policy of breaking patriotic consciousness, institutions important for defending the country and those media that defended Serbia's interests. At that time, it was very difficult to survive, let alone raise your voice to the force, not only of its own government, but also of its mentors from abroad. Only the Belgrade Forum then publicly raised its voice against such a policy, against distortion of facts, persecution of patriots, surrender of Kosovo and Metohija, wild privatization and much more. The Belgrade Forum was created as a reaction to the intention of the Western powers, in conjunction with the then new government, to collapse Serbia and as an attempt to prevent Serbia's staggering and its downfall.

The Belgrade Forum was aware that, due to its patriotic attitudes and activities, from its foundation, it would be faced with challenges conducted by the political leadership of the country, media and with many other blockades and vilifications by its members and sympathizers.

Due to the blockade of the Belgrade Forum, the general public still does not know enough about what and how much the Belgrade Forum worked for to make its views and arguments generally accepted in the political structure of Serbia and the Serbian public. For two decades the Belgrade

Forum did not deviate from its patriotic and principled positions, and in the period after the change of unpatriotic government in 2012, these attitudes slowly but surely gained wider legitimacy and confirmation among political factors in Serbia and in out general public.

That is why it is important to point out, as an illustration of the consistent action of the Forum, that regardless of obstructions of all kinds from the first day of its establishment, May 22nd 2001,  we use the term NATO aggression on the FRY and we call it by the real name - aggression. At that time, euphemisms such as "military intervention", "bombing", "military action" and the like were used, and the term "aggression" was consistently used only by the Belgrade Forum. Only much later, state representatives began to use the term "NATO aggression", and then the media. It was one of the first steps towards a return to the policy of protecting the national interests of Serbia, to which the Forum made a decisive contribution.
Such is the idea of "active military neutrality" promoted by the Forum in 2001 at the round table of the Forum entitled "Yugoslavia and Euro-Atlantic military and political integration", as opposed to the then ubiquitous campaign for Serbia and Montenegro's membership in NATO, supported by the then authorities in Serbia. Today, military neutrality and state policy of Serbia are active.

The key to peace and the truth about terrorists. From the beginning, the Forum persistently used the term "terrorist KLA" and it still does today, tirelessly pointing out that "Kosovo" is today part of the world's fundamentalist terrorist network and a terrorist recruiting center for Syria.

The Forum continuously points out the disastrous consequences of the use of depleted uranium ammunition in the NATO aggression on the FRY and persistently advocates greater engagement of the National Assembly (NS) and the interdepartmental working group of the NS on this issue. The lethal consequences of uranium ammunition are best evidenced by a letter from the Finnish Minister of the Environment HASS to the EU, in which he talks about the harmful consequences that will last for thousands of years.

For years, the Forum has been persistently advocating for the erection of a monument to the victims of NATO aggression, apart from the monument dedicated to the victims of all wars, which is being offered as a replacement. The Forum believes that NATO crimes should be specially marked and set apart from others.

The Forum still advocates the thesis that NATO aggression against our country continues today through persistent efforts of NATO leaders to seize Kosovo and Metohija, and Republika Srpska to collapse into unitary Bosnia and Herzegovina, by binding Serbia to NATO, and by many other means.

At the meeting of the Forum "International Relations on the Threshold of the XXI Century" held in 2001, for the first time in our country the thesis about the "multipolar world" was presented, which is a reality today.

Let us also mention the latest idea, the value of which we will only be convinced of, and that is to respect UN Security Council Resolution 1244 as “the key to peace in Europe”. In his book of the same title, the President of the Forum Zivadin Jovanovic, the author of the book, very extensively and arguably argues that only UN Security Council Resolution 1244 is the basis for achieving peace and a lasting solution between Serbia and its autonomous province. The Forum regularly points out that numerous occasional "initiatives" of Western powers to resolve this issue obscure simple facts, giving the impression that there are some concrete possibilities to resolve this conflict in some other way, and the truth is that Western powers, in every initiative, are looking to settle their and the interests of the secessionists in Pristina at the expense of the interests of Serbia. All their proposals and initiatives are reduced to the same - surrender of Kosovo and Metohija, which is not an agreement but only the completion of aggression, this time by coercion instead of brutal military force, and it is doomed to failure, as time will show.

Defense, strength and personal sacrifice. Today, twenty years after its founding, the Belgrade Forum has not only survived, but is still true defender of homeland and its highest values. Serbia is to some extent at safe now thanks to, among other things, the efforts and devotions of the Belgrade Forum which persistently, and when others did not dare, publicly and clearly stated its views on the assessment of the situation, problems, activities, intentions, goals and consequences of various factors involved in the Serbian public and political area, and does so now.
During the two decades of its existence, the Belgrade Forum has organized international and national gatherings, participated in many gatherings in the country and abroad, publicly expressed its views and opinions, issued numerous statements, launched appeals and initiatives, and its most prominent members are publicaly well known in Serbia and beyond. In parallel with these activities, as a complementary, but very important and fruitful activity, the Belgrade Forum developed publishing activities. Its books, publications and collections of papers found a place in the archives of important institutions and individuals in the country and abroad.

During all the past twenty years of existence and work, the Belgrade Forum has faced numerous and great problems, from financial and material to various obstructions and marginalizations, but with the strength of its attitudes and beliefs, intellectual capacities of its members, patriotic goals and actions, has managed to solve all problems in a timely manner. This all was possible because of the voluntary work of all active members of the Forum and thanks to many patriotic citizens of our country, either from Serbia or abroad, who recognized the Belgrade Forum as "their" organization, the one whose views, arguments and advocacy they share and support.

Belgrade, June 4th  2020
Rade Drobac Retired Ambassador