5 minutes agoEU and US pressure Serbia: Relations with Russia “are not normal”
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)The European Union called on Serbia to impose sanctions against Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine after Serbia hosted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grusko. On July 2nd, Grusko met with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, while there were meetings in Belgrade with other top Serbian officials. <x0)
On July 2nd, Grusko met with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, while there were meetings in Belgrade with other top Serbian officials.
The European Union has been clear to our partners: relations with Russia cannot be normal after Russia's unprotested and unjustified fight against Ukraine”, an EU spokesman for Radio Free Europe said.
He added that the EU Council is aware of Serbia's humanitarian and other aid to Ukraine, but that, too, it expects Serbia -- as a candidate country for EU membership -- to be linked to European and security foreign policy.
The US State Department said in a statement to Radio Free Europe that the United States “does not believe any country should give Russia a platform to promote its aggression fight against Ukraine”.
The Western Balkan countries, as well as all of Europe, have a major interest in the flow of the Russian war against Ukraine, which threatens the foundations of international order and security. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to continue to stay together in the face of Russia's” aggression, the State Department said.
He also praised the support Serbia has given Ukraine so far.
Who did Grusko meet in Belgrade?
Grusko had one“Good chat” With Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, Vucic himself disclosed his account in Instagram on July 2nd.
“We have reviewed general bilateral relations between Serbia and the Russian Federation and praised them as very good”, Vuciq wrote in his post.
A day earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Police Minister Ivica Dacic.
He also held meetings with Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin and Minister Nenad Popovic. Both are on the list of US sanctions, due to their close ties to the Kremlin.
On the list of Serbian officials he met with, there is Marko Djuric, Serbia's foreign affairs minister.
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Connection to Russia
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is in the third year, and during that time Serbia has not given up its ties with Russia.
Officially, Belgrade supports Ukraine's territorial integrity, but refuses to impose sanctions against Moscow.
He reasons his refusal with friendly ties with Russia, but also with the support it receives at the international level.
This is not the first visit by Lavrov's deputy to Serbia since the beginning of the war.
Grusko has stayed in Belgrade even in October 2022, but, then, the Serbian public has learned about the visit by officials and media in Russia.
It's about an essentially performance -- that's how the Russian official's visit to Radio Free Europe, Darko Obradovic, from the nongovernmental Centre for Strategic Analysis in Belgrade.
“Co-operation between Serbia and Russia has actually turned into a propaganda media activity, which, in fact, will not produce any substantial” results, Obradovic says.
Such an assessment he supports in arguments that “Russia no longer has anything to offer Serbia in the field of security”.
Russia's deputy foreign affairs minister's visit to Serbia took place two weeks after Serbia supported the declaration at the Peace Summit in Ukraine, which was held in Switzerland, expressing support for Ukraine's territorial integrity.
It is one of several European Union statements and UN resolutions Serbia has supported, condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, it has not joined Western sanctions against Russia, which it relies on, primarily on the Kosovo issue.
Grusko's visit this time reflected in the media
Unlike Gruko's previous visit to Belgrade, the latest was reported by officials through media communiqués.
Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has shared a photo with Grukko in his Instagram account.
When he met with him in Belgrade in October 2022, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry has published information, but not the Office of the President of Serbia.
Meeting with deputy prime minister enters Grusko's round of contacts with Serbian officials Alexander Vulin in Moscow.The Seal on Official Visit to Moscow
They met in mid-June, shortly after Volin was appointed to one of the leading positions in Serbia's new government.
The messages of Grusko and Vulin at the time have conveyed the goal of strengthening co-operation between the two countries.
The seal. from the black American list, has discussed with Russian officials for “shared resistance to the West”, Russian media have reported.
How did Russian media report Grushko's visit?
The extraordinary “Nivel of relations with the Russian Federation” and “close co-operation” through Serbia's Interior Ministry.
So reported on Grusko's visit to Serbia on July 1st and 2nd to Russian media.
In their reports, Russian state agencies TASS and Ria Novosti referred to government reports of Serbia and Vucinqi's post at Instagram.
They also reported on the statements by Serbia's deputy prime minister, Voulin, for the two countries' “friendship and mutual respect”.
TASS also announced that Grusko, during his visit to Belgrade, placed wreaths of flowers in the Belgrade Liberation Memorial, Eternal Flame and the Red Army Monument.
Darko Obradovic, from the nongovernmental Centre for Strategic Analysis in Belgrade, sees this as “a game Russia and Serbia have accepted”.
We will be witnesses to such activities in the future, but there will be no essential realisations. It's just an easy way not to break the century-old brotherhood”, Obradovic says.
Serbia and Russia, otherwise, have developed military-technical co-operation, while by 2016, when the modernisation of the military, Serbia has secured weapons from Russia despite criticism from Brussels.
