EU foreign policy chief calls on Serbia to make a ‘strategic choice’ between West and East

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European Union’s top foreign policy official said Thursday that membership candidate Serbia faces a “strategic choice” of direction, just weeks after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic defied EU warnings and attended Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.

“Serbia faces a strategic, geostrategic choice, where it wants to be,” Kaja Kallas said during her visit to Belgrade. “Serbia’s European future depends on the values it chooses to uphold.”

Vucic’s appearance in Moscow for the May 9 parade was widely condemned in Brussels, with EU officials warning that such actions seriously jeopardize Serbia’s EU path. The officials said that it was inappropriate for Vucic to stand side by side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, considering Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kallas said that she discussed the visit with Vucic.

“And I expressed my views, which are very clear,” she said.

“I really don’t understand why it is necessary to stand side by side with the person who is conducting this horrible war in Ukraine,” she said. “And President Vucic was explaining his side of the story. So, yes, we had a very extensive discussion about this.”

Serbia’s close ties with Russia and China

Vucic, a former extreme nationalist criticized at home and abroad over alleged increasingly authoritarian ways, has maintained close relations with both Russia and China, while formally saying that he wants Serbia to join the EU.

Vucic has said his decision to attend Putin’s military parade, which marked the World War II victory over Nazi Germany, was part of efforts to maintain “traditional friendships” — Russia is a fellow Slavic and Orthodox Christian nation — while seeking EU entry.

Serbia, which relies almost fully on Russia for energy, has refused to join Western sanctions on Russia over the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and hasn’t supported most EU statements condemning the aggression.

Vucic also has been under pressure at home following six months of large anti-corruption protests that erupted after a train station tragedy in Serbia’s north that killed 16 people and which many in the country blamed on state officials’ graft during infrastructure construction.

“From my discussions with the Serbian political leadership, it is clear that EU membership remains a strategic goal,” Kallas said. “However, I want to emphasize that we need to see actions also to prove and support those words.”

“Reforms are how Serbia will advance along its EU path,” Kallas added. “There are no shortcuts for membership. Real progress must be made here in Belgrade.”

She said she also met the protesting “youth,” referring to the students who have led months of demonstrations, and called for Serbia to make serious efforts on media freedom, combating corruption and electoral reform.

“These reforms will bring real benefits for the citizens and the people of Serbia as hundreds of thousands of protesters have been demanding in recent weeks. The autonomy of the universities must be respected,” she said.

Serbia-Kosovo tense ties remain Brussels’ priority

From Belgrade, Kallas traveled to the former Serbian province of Kosovo which unitarily declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia doesn’t recognize.

EU-mediated talks between the two neighboring states have been long been frozen. Kallas said normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo is “fundamental” for their European future.

“It is time the two countries to overcome the past a focus on the common future,” she said. “I plan to invite the representatives from Belgrade and Pristina to Brussels as soon as possible to discuss the concrete steps forward.”

In Kosovo, where Kallas will meet with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, political representatives and civil society groups, she said that the normalization of Kosovo-Serbia relations “is the only path to a safer and more prosperous future for the people of this region.”

“Stability depends on dialogue, not confrontation,” she said at a news conference.

Kallas said that Brussels “has begun to gradually lift measures introduced in June 2023,” adding that a full lifting is “conditional on sustained de-escalation in the north.”

Most of the ethnic Serb minority population lives in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, which has seen tensions rise in the last three years.

Normalization talks between Kosovo and Serbia began in 2011, but have failed to make any progress.

The Kosovo war in 1998-1999 left around 11,400 people dead. A 78-day NATO air campaign ended the fighting and pushed Serbian forces out of Kosovo.

The six Western Balkan countries are in different phases of accession. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 encouraged Europe’s leaders to push for the countries to join the bloc, fearing instability.

Kallas said she is “deeply committed to encouraging all the Western Balkan countries to really seize the current momentum that we have in the enlargement.”

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Llazar Semini contributed to this report from Tirana, Albania.