BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The Balkan nation’s president Aleksandr Vučić said on Monday that Serbia will face international threats if it rejects new Western plans to normalize ties with former war enemy Kosovo. It said it could face isolation and economic decline. his former hardline rhetoric.
Serbia received that warning last week during a visit by a group of US and European envoys who are stepping up efforts to defuse long-standing tensions in the volatile Balkan region amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Serbia must speak, participate in dialogue and continue on the European path,” Vucic said. “Without it, we would be lost economically and politically. As president, I would not agree to lead a lonely and isolated country.”
The conflict between Serbia and the former state of Kosovo has contributed to instability in the Balkans after the 1998-1999 war, and NATO intervention forced Serbia to withdraw from the territory. .
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to recognize it, relying on Russia and China to help Serbia maintain its territorial claims. The US and most of her EU countries recognize Kosovo, but Russia and China do not.
A new Western plan to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo has not been officially announced. Vucic said in a televised speech that it stipulates that Serbia will not oppose Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, including the United Nations.
The US and EU have stalled for months as they fear Serbia’s ally, Russia, may try to stir up instability in the Balkans to divert attention from the war in Ukraine. I would like to proceed with the dialogue through the EU.
“These meetings were the toughest in the last decade,” Vucic said of the meetings. “It never happened”
The West wants to defeat Russia and anyone who stands in its way will be “wiped out,” Vucic said.
“No matter what they say, Europe is effectively at war,” said Vucic. “They (the EU) want everything in their backyard. And the Balkans are their backyard. They want it to be what they want.”
Serbia, which is formally seeking EU membership, has not complied with EU sanctions against Russia, but Vucic said he was ready to consider the West’s latest plans. It did not escape criticism from the Russian nationalist opposition.
Despite the prevalence of anti-Western and pro-Russian sentiment in Serbia since the former ultranationalist Vucic came to power a decade ago, he said that isolated Serbia would benefit from Western support and investment. Without it, the economy would collapse, he said.
Vucic said on Monday that nothing would happen “within the next day or two” but that the country would face tough decisions in the near future. He warned that the first impact Serbia would face if it rejected the latest West Kosovo plan would be the abolition of its visa-free regime with the EU.
“To be fair, the European Union is the biggest investor in Serbia,” he said. “We have to look at things fairly and objectively.”
Vucic has previously said Serbia would never recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Western authorities brokered a tense situation in northern Kosovo last month when Serbs barricaded a highway to protest the arrest of a former Serb police officer. And in the latest incident, Serbian officials said Kosovar police injured a Serb man in the north of the Serb-held country on Monday.
