Heusgen for Serbia: It hurts a lot that the EU is the biggest investor in the Balkans, and Russia is appreciated there

Heusgen, who is also named the most influential adviser of former candidates Angela Merkel for foreign policy, has also been asked in an interview with DW about what should be done against Russia in the Balkans, where Serbia is historically an ally country.

We see this and we need to be more active, we need to be more present there. Sometimes it hurts to see that in countries where the biggest investor, the most important trading partner is the EU, people appreciate Russia and even demonstrate in Russia's favor. I think we should make better publicity by showing what Europe is doing. In countries where Russia is popular and where it is not condemned what Russia is doing in Ukraine, we should be more active, as we should be outside Europe”, he has said.

He said one of the biggest challenges they are facing is that many countries of the so-called Global South are equinists, have equal appreciation for both Ukraine and Russia when it comes to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

And we need to make it clear that what Russia is doing in Ukraine is not a continuation of the East-West conflict, but a flagrant violation of international law. According to the UN Charter, Russia is destroying humanity, and we have to make this very clear. But we can do so only if both the European Union and the individual states are more active in the countries of the Western Balkans, Asia, Africa and Latin America”.

From 2017 to 2021, Heusgen also served as Germany's ambassador to the United Nations in New York