Well, it's very difficult for me to answer to your question. It's very complex and complicated one. >> I ask complicated questions. So, we're sorry. >> No, there are no complicated questions. There are complicated answers and complicated spheres and fields of life. Uh there are less investments than ever before from various reasons and uh not only here but all over Europe and uh in many parts of the world as well. And if I may say, we need to connect geopolitical issues, geopolitical rivalries with economic situations with economic situation in all different parts of the world. Let me say this. Serbia in first half of this year has reached a growth rate level of 3.5% which is number one in Europe. Next year we have a foreseen done by an IMF which says that we'll have 4.5% which is once again going to be number one in Europe. Am I absolutely happy? absolutely satisfied? No, not at all. because I see that the level of investments in an entire continent it goes down and uh you cannot attract so far we used to be let's say 61 up to 62% of overall western bulan FDI attraction but the real issue is that when you have a small growth rates in Europe then you cannot attract a lot of investors from Western Europe that's the real issue for us and uh we need to find some other ways to underpin and to endorse our growth in the years to come. It cannot be only consumption, higher consumption. It has to be foreign direct investments and of course our internal investments particularly into infrastructural works. But it's very complicated why I was saying this because you cannot make big plans having this big war in Europe in Ukraine and having this big war in the Middle East as well. And uh today I don't know whether you have checked that but what I saw in a plane when I was flying back to Belgrade from Paris uh I saw that the price TTF for DTF stock market for the gas is 968 US dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. It's terribly big. the price of oil exceeded 100 US dollars as well. And uh these are things that are actually putting us into a more difficult situation. But also speaking about global trade. It's not about market anymore. When we were kids, when we were young, we were all learning that market economy is the best economy and that's the only real economy. Everything else is false. And today we see that uh everybody is doing not only subsidies but putting a lot of barriers, tariffs, sanctions and everything else against the others in order to create advantages position for its own companies. uh which lead us to the world which is insecured in which you cannot plan a lot of things and there are some other stuff that we need to care about in the future speaking about entire Europe. We need to work more. Nobody wants to say this. I heard some people in Germany saying it and they were immediately attacked. But they really mean it. And okay, we are we are all spoiled. We all live good lives but we work less and we always expect to to earn more and uh this is why Asian economies I spoke today to Vietnamese president and I really admire the way they advanced they progressed in the recent time but and not only Chinese but the other nations they have an Iowa tiger they want to overtake all the others including Europe and uh we want to keep the same position to remain on a very same place but not changing ourselves. This is something that we that we need to discuss in a very thorough and a very compelling way otherwise we are going to lose. We won't be competitive at all. And uh speaking about our investments, yes we have investments mainly from Europe. It's still the biggest chunk of foreign direct investments then from China than from all the others including UAE and uh we were doing a bit better than some others in the region but uh we cannot be happy if we all don't do quite well and uh I just hope that we'll be able to improve our work in the future. to increase the level of enthusiasm and to dream big and aim high. Without it, we'll do nothing. >> This has already had an impact and I don't underestimate this. I'm not speaking about >> real investments because investors they make their decisions in a bit different way. But politically, of course, we paid the price for that. Although it would be easy for me to justify something, but I don't want to do it to tell to tell you the truth. It was easy for someone to find a scapegoat and to say okay there is a regular culprit which is always Serbia or Witch and no one wanted to go and to analyze things in depth and to see what really happened and I'm not going to criticize all the others but just let me tell you this when war criminal Praak committed the suicide it in hate tribunal. It happened in 2017 10 years after Croatia joined European Union. They had in their parliament in their parliament expression of deepest condolences to the family made by the chairman of the parliament. Then minute of silence. Then they had a declaration in which they said that all the verdicts against six officers of Croatia were actually unacceptable, uh, unjust and something whatever. And there were no reaction at all. We didn't do it here. There had been no glorification, nothing at all. But people were mainly stunned with number of people that attended the funeral. But no one wanted to ask himself or herself, okay, put aside Serbia. Let us ask ourselves whether there was something that we were guilty for. No one asked himself or herself why those people were attending in flocks in these huge numbers this funeral. I'll tell you one of the main reasons because people are fed up with being humiliated in last 35 years. Serbs were the only nation that didn't want to secede from Yugoslavia. All of a sudden they became the only culprit. All the others were committing crimes against Serbs and Serbs against the others. But it has always been the case that only Serbs were not only accused indicted but there were verdicts and only Serbs were sentenced to prison at the end not the others. Then we had date on peace accord which was changed tens of times in order to make so-called functional state but against the Serb national interests. Speaking about Brussels agreement which we signed in 20143 in April we fulfilled everything. Unfortunately, we dismantled police, justice and judiciary system in one part of Koso which was our obligation but they did not form not yet and only 13 years passed after that they did not form Serb community or Serb association and it was co-signed by European Union and my question is don't you see what's the real reason for that. That was much bigger funeral than some other big funerals we had. Much bigger in numbers. Although some people might say, "No, it was not the case. It was bigger when JJ died." No, this was much bigger. Okay, I can accept partly that it's always the easiest way for someone to say, okay, I am guilty. It's and if and I see it. If it's easier for you to say that it's my fault, okay, it's my fault. I think that I do understand emotions of our people and uh there was one thing that I was not happy with this is these are these emotions because when I see those emotions on such a high level we are not very much we might be not very much away from the worst scenarios. And that's why I was saying to my people two, three days ago, we need to forget everything. We need to be laser focused on our economic growth. We don't need any wars. We don't need second half. We are the maybe the only one who doesn't need any kind of second half. It doesn't need we don't need any kind of clashes, bros, whatever. We have a great growth rate. We have a good economy, a low public debt to GDP ratio. Uh we are overtaking even some EU countries speaking about net salaries, net wages. That's what we need to focus ourselves on. Otherwise, it'll be like it happened during 1990s, which we going to avert. we're going to avoid at any price. I I wanted I wanted to tell you this because people are always seeking and trying to find simple and easy answers. It's not that easy. If it was that easy, they could have foreseen what was going to happen. But it was not that easy. Even I was surprised with number of people we expected. I saw someone from police in front of the building. I think the expectation was around 20 to 30,000 people and we got less people from Republic of Serka than we expected and all of a sudden we were very much surprised with the number of people but I was not surprised with the emotions of the people. I knew it. I knew it. people, you know, you say to you come to my country and you say, "Okay, you have to align with that and that. You have to confess that and that. You have to say whatever all the others are asking you to say. But you took or you wanted to take from our point of view or you took from your point of view 14% of our territory after guaranteeing us the territory that belonged to Serbia after bad commission's conclusions and we are the only country that from at least your point of view lost territory lost its territory all the others were gaining something we were the only one who were losing something not something but quite a something and then you still expect us to say okay thank you very much we are honored to have this kind of beautiful decisions and it's great that you did it thank you for doing so are you real do you really expect that no you cannot expect that anyway we have to not to forget it not to forgive it we need to focus ourselves and to say very openly very publicly Peace is of an utmost importance for Serbian people. We need to keep it. We need to keep stability. We need to work on our EU path. whether will be some backlashes or most probably yes and uh what else we can do and at the end I'm happy that we secured safety for the people that there were no incidents there were it was very risky very risky and we did it in a very professional way speaking about logistics transportation and security measures that's what we did in a very very professional professional in a very good manner. Very >> frantic was saying it's important and uh I don't think that as Europeans all of us all together we have all cars in our hands. We need to understand what's going on in the world. Yesterday evening I was at a dinner >> in Paris. Yes. >> Yeah. Al is palace and uh didn't know absolutely anything about the outer space and all these ideas was doing my preparation and all of a sudden I caught myself like okay how could you be so stupid you are the president of the country and you didn't know almost anything you are not knowledgeable at all about this fear and uh we need to do something but then I was sitting around CEOs of best French companies from Airbus to Dau from Motri to Gon and then on my left side was well Marshall from American planet and I asked him very sincerely okay tell me well how does it go in today's world because he that company is securing 80% of satellites for Ukraine it's not Elon Musk it's planet And uh and I asked him, okay, where do you see European role and how an entire Europe can get closer to United States? And he said to me, well, Alexander, I can tell you it's United States, six months lagging behind us, but only six months, not more than that. It's Chinese, which means it's a race neck to neck. And then it's and 20 years ago it was totally different situation in Europe is down there. And uh why is this happening? It's the same in industrial production. It's the same in AI. It's the same in robotics. And we are losing this race. And I was listening to some CEOs of German companies which were saying in a very virus way that we need to work more because we still live the best way of life in an entire world. We enjoy and indulge our good lives in Europe. There is no such a continent in the world. There is no such a place in the world. But this also makes us very spoiled and just living our lives, not planning anything for the f future, not being able to change ourselves, not being able to notice our mistakes. And what Alexander was saying about moralizing something, he's not a Serbian or pro-Serbian. He's pro- western Balkans. Always more probosian than anything else. No, I'm saying the truth. I'm saying the truth. I know Alexander for quite a long period of time as well and have always been very respectful and I think he's a great diplomat and very knowledgeable person. Uh but you see, let me ask you a question. 11 years ago I went to Sberrenitsa. I wanted and I did bow my head in front of the monument and put a flower over there. And after that I was severely attacked, almost lynched. There were no investigation. No one was even arrested and no one was even asking them. No one has ever asked them to arrest some someone to be accountable for that to be responsible for that. I was not asking as well. I spoke to some people that attacked me and I said to them, "Okay, I forgive you. I do understand. Highly emotional for you." And that's it. Why I'm saying this to you? Not in order to criticize someone but in order to say whenever we were close to make a settlement to make an arrangement with let's say Bosnjaks someone was organizing something and this situation this situation with Madic was just used by all the others like Linet's sufficient reason Linet sufficient excuse in order to start to commen man to run the most terrible campaign against Serbia. If there were some reasons for some other events, I might say okay. But this time, almost nothing at all. But people didn't want to see their image in a mirror because they thought that they were doing everything in the most beautiful and in the most terrific way. And after seeing so many people at that funeral, they were stunned, shocked, surprised because well, we were doing everything in the best possible way for those people. How does it happen all all of a sudden? Do you really think that 100,000 people or doesn't matter 80 or 120,000 people are monsters, criminals, they like war criminals or whatever? No, it cannot be the truth. It cannot be the truth. And uh this is why we need more analysis. And now you saw my response to Bosnjaks. We are going to cut our relationship with Serbia to the minimum and blah blah blah. Okay. We'll remain calm, tranquil, we'll keep stability. We are not going to response to we are not going to respond to them today. We are going to dismantle and to abolish the very existence of Republica Serpska. That was said by their minister of defense. I said to my people, just calm down. This is what they think. They believe it's a right and proper moment to launch this initiative because they can use this kind of uh media campaign against Serbia and Republic of Serbska in order to deliver on that. We should just keep calm and uh insisting and continuing and insisting to talk with them and to try to understand each other. I really believe and I can imagine how difficult it is for many Bosnjaks to see that and that's why I was always paying tribute and big respect to their victims and will always do but uh this was something else. This was something else and this was very much organized from the very first moment and as you can see as you can see no one no one wants to stop that campaign. It shows very clearly to you that someone or some very important circles all over the world and around the world they don't want to see peace and stability and calm here in the region. That's why we need to be very prudent and very cautious. >> And Mr. President, I um >> no one can explain it to me why that is the topic 5 days after. Say to me because you were shocked and you were not shocked with the Nazi slogans that were chanted by 500,000 people in Croatia or you don't understand what they were saying, what they were expressing or whatever. And that's an EU country. You were not stunned by that. Okay, that happened yesterday or two days ago. Okay, we need to live. >> I had a coalition partner that came to me to my office when I was asking them to come after the last elections and they won 3 point something% and I got 48 whatever. And the guy entered the room and he was saying to me, here is the list of preconditions, Mr. president you that you should fulfill if you want us you know that you are not very popular I said yeah I know that I'm not very popular and I know that you are very popular with 3% but okay give me that list give me that list he had given that list to me and number one was our people must not work on Sunday and we should discuss Saturday and Friday and I said to him I know that you're very popular thank you very much now you can leave the room and that's it I cannot say till 85 because it's not True. But okay 70. >> But if I if I I raised I raised this from uh this boundary from 60 to 65 just for you to know. And I did it in one year and changed and changed the labor law and cut the pensions and cut the wages public wages. Tell me who did it in Europe. >> No one. But the public debt to GDP ratio when I became the prime minister was 79% and today is 43%. And in the meantime our overall GDP grew from 32 billion up to 100 billion just in last 12 years. This is something that we did. It's according to Euroa datas and this is something that no one can deny and I'm saying this publicly and my people are listening to this. I believe that we need to work much more than we used to otherwise we're going to lose everything. Have you been to have you been recently to Usbakistan, Kazakhstan or Bejan? >> I've been to Tuk >> Georgia. in Georgia. Yes, >> I've been to all these countries. The growth rate of these countries is between seven and 8.5%. They are eager. They're cravingly trying to overtake all of us and they're doing it so and we don't see that because we believe that is somewhere far away from us and we don't need to pay respect to these countries. No, we need to understand that in 10 years apart from demographic problems that we all face with they're killing us in everything else, overtaking us in everything else because they work more. They're more diligent, more dedicated, more devoted and that's it. And we are just moralizing to everybody and we don't like your system presidency. He cares a lot whether we like it or not. Then we don't like Vietnamese system. He's going to he's not going to sleep tonight because we don't like it or or whatever. And we believe that we are like a god and that we can dictate to everybody to all the others in the world how to act and what to do. Who cares about it? What you can say to Brazil, to Merkosur countries, what you can say to Assan countries, what you can say to China, what you can say to India, not to mention Russia and the others. And then the world is Europe and we cut our ties with United States as well. It will and we reach the point of no return and everybody knows it. Doesn't matter who's going to be in power in the in the states tomorrow. And then what we need to we need to understand our opposition. We should stop overestimating ourselves and underestimating the others. Accept this market competitiveness game. And if we win, that's great. If we lose, we'll have to start changing ourselves. That's it. >> Mr. >> I'll tell you, we always strategize a bit things and we discussed we talked to each other. We had bilateral meeting from quarter to 11 till midnight. And uh I like to speak to Emmanuel. He's very smart, well educated and he catches things in the air easily and uh he does understand global politics and uh we discussed all the issues and uh particularly French Serbian bilateral relationship. We touched upon some of their investments and uh trade turnover, but also we discussed the EU path of Serbia and everything else. And I believe that France is a huge supporter of Serbia on its EU path. And they believe in general that without Serbia there is no real enlargement. But and I know that he knows all the difficulties we are facing with of course he's it's not easy even for him to stand this pressure that is coming from many media media's outlets and all the others even when I spoke to some friends from Gopsic you know it was like it's a big uproar what you going to do there I go there so what can happened to me. It's like it would be the first time that I was the only culprit. You know, today European Union has another problem. You used to have at least uh Victor Orban and he was always a good excuse for all the others. Now the only the only excuse that actually left not within European Union but within Europe is Alexander Witch. Okay, so remove that guy. remove that guy and then all the problems, all the issues in Europe will be resolved. But yes, we we did a lot of concrete stuff and uh we discussed even nuclear energy and uh what we going to do with EDF and uh outer space issues through different uh programs, copernicus, uh artis whatever you call it. I learned something at least in last 24 hours. Yeah. >> Yeah. You know it, Alexander. You know it much better than I do. It's >> It's not always easy for me to remember everything. >> Now we have a This microphone is killing me, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. I'm I'm We have uh You see the the lights here are turning red and it's going down very quickly. I think we leave it at this because the microphone is killing you. The microphone is killing me. Um people here wants to go and have coffee. So >> if I may say these people are very smart people. >> Yes. >> And we should have we should have >> more of these kind of talks to be broadcasted and to be seen by many people in the region. And we should speak freely and openly about the issues. And as you could see, I was not using it although an election campaign started. I was saying everything in a way like it will never start election campaign because I don't care. I believe that the interest of the states and the nation are much more important than parties interest. But I heard you will be prime minister afterwards. If I don't lose elections, which is most probably going to happen as they say,