After Putin, Vucinqi in China for the strengthening of “steel friendship”

Serbia's president's five-day visit, Aleksandar Vuciq, comes after a decade of strengthening reports with China.

Just with China, Serbia is building <x0) steel hostile”, as officials of both countries call co-operation among them.

As a European Union membership candidate country, Serbia has been increasingly run by China in recent years.

Vucinqi will stay in China for a five-day visit from May 24th to May 28, at the invitation of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The US State Department's former senior official, Thomas Countymann, praised Free Europe for Radio that for Vuccina this visit is more important than symbolic importance.

The continued support of Beijing is important to him, both economically and politically, while this costs China little to”, said Countrymann.

Co-operation has been expanded from economic and infrastructure to even military areas, so Serbia, as the only European country, has been supplied with weapons from China in recent years.

Last year, members of special units of Chinese and Serbian armies held their first joint military exercise in China.

Serbia is also part of the “Bresey International Initiative and the” Road, which China launched in 2013 with the aim of developing new trade routes and markets for Chinese exports.

Serbia's foreign policy goal is EU membership, but at the same time its foreign policy is based on balance between the West and the East.

Countryman estimated that Vuciqi has been relatively successful in trying to have balance between Washington, Brussels, Moscow and Beijing, at least by not making too much of those sides”.

“However, this has happened at the price of weakening Serbia's aspirations for membership in the European Union, especially because of close and nontransparent relations with Russia”, he said.

Serbia is doing a survey on European integrations, among other things because of its EU foreign policy incompatibilities.

With a story of maintaining good reports with Russia, Belgrade continues to refuse to join EU sanctions on Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine.

What does travel to Beijing bring?

Stefan Vladsavlev, program director of the nongovernmental foundation EPE for Co-operative Society told Radio Free Europe that Vucinqi has travelled towards Beijing mainly in multilateral formats.

“This will be an opportunity for, at a high level, not only to harmonise future and mutual policy, but also to concreteise certain forms of co-operation”, he praised.

On the eve of the visit, Vuciqi said the parties have agreed to investments worth 1 billion euros.

On May 21st, he told Serbian public broadcaster, RTS, that at least 33 agreements will be signed, as well as agreements and contracts that “will not be less than 30”.

He also added that with Xina he would sign two major joint statements, but did not elaborate on these documents.

Vuciqi also warned that it will be discussed producing humanoid chips and robots in Serbia.

Vladsavlev stressed that the importance of the visit will depend on agreements to be signed.

We need to see if they will be linked to concrete projects, whether they will be at the level of co-operation or concrete contracts tasked with implementing projects”, he said.

Asked what could be expected from the Serbian president's visit to China, former US State Department official Thomas Countyman responded: “very little”.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiaku, Vuciqi will hold separate meetings with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang.

He told reporters 20 May that Serbia is the first European country that, along with China, has built a <x0 community of the common future in the new” era and that it is an important partner of China in Southeast Europe.

Chinese MPJ spokesman said China sees President Vuciq's visit as an opportunity to build a <x0-strong steel friendship “to enhance co-operation that is useful for both sides, to enrich cultural exchanges and multilater co-ordination.

China and Serbia established strategic partnership in August 2009.

During the first Chinese president's visit to Belgrade in June 2016, the Joint Declaration for the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership was signed.

During Xi Yingut's second visit to Belgrade in May 2024, the Joint Declaration for the construction of Serbia's <x0->community was signed with a common future in the new time of”.

Symbol Trump-Putin-Vucciq?

This is not Vuciki's first visit to Beijing, but he describes it as the crowning of his political career.

This is also because, as he said, he is traveling to Xi after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vuciq will arrive in China a week after Trump's visit and just days after Putin's visit.

However, Stefan Vladsavlev estimated that it is a mere coincidence and stressed that the topics of talks with Vucinqi will be different from those that the Chinese developed with Trump and Putin.

“Trump had the idea to ease tensions in bilateral relations, while with Putin it was about deepening bilateral co-operation and the focus was energy”.

In Serbia's case, according to him, bilateral co-operation agreements between the two states will be in order.

As a result, the impact they will have on geopolitical dimension will remain limited”, Vladsavlev estimated.

Serbia and China have signed in 2023 and the Free Trade Agreement, which Serbian officials have described as the event with the historical “ ” historical significance for Serbia.

From Building Roads and Railways to Buying Weapons

In Serbia, billions of Chinese investments are going through, while in Chinese loans, infrastructure projects are being built.

Developing is the construction of the fast railway Belgrade (Budapest), which is part of the Chinese strategic project “Bresey and” Street.

This project is under investigation by the Prosecutor for Organised Crime in Serbia under suspicion of corruption.

The investigation was opened following the collapse of the concrete shelter at the Novi Sad Railway Station on November 1st 2017 that left 16 people dead, events that triggered mass protests in Serbia.

It is unknown whether the responsibility of Chinese investors is being investigated, while two former government ministers of Serbia are suspected.

All of Serbia's infrastructure projects with China have been contracted without tenders, with direct agreements between governments.

From Brussels, it has been warned several times about the lack of transparency in these agreements.

At the same time, Serbia's debt to China is increasing.

Much of the credit is taken for infrastructure projects, roads, bridges and railways, mainly from the Chinese bank E XIM (Banca for Export-Import of China).

This bank, according to the Public Debt Administration data of Serbia's Ministry of Finance, is one of Serbia's biggest creditors.

Authorities in Belgrade obtain loans from China, instead of funding from EU institutions, to which Serbia targets membership, have also justified the fact that Chinese loans are the fastest “”, due to easier procedures.

Funding from EU funds would require respect for European procedures, which include transparency and bidding.

According to data from the Republic of Statistics of Serbia, trade exchange with China in 2025 has reached 8.29 billion euros.

Of this, exports from Serbia has been 1.87 billion euros, while importing 6.42 billion euros.

Chinese companies have taken over former state-owned money-losing national nationals, which employ thousands of people.

Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining tops Serbia's list of biggest exporters, while the Chinese group HBIS has taken over almost closed steel factory in 2016.

While local environmental activists warn of pollution of vital resources -- air, water and land -- Chinese companies have dismissed these accusations.

HBIS was fined in 2024 for air pollution.

Among the latest major Chinese investments is the Linglong tyre factory, which has also been accompanied by allegations of pollution and forced labour.

Due to allegations of forced labour use, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued an order to ban import of tires produced in Linglong in Serbia in December 2025.

Belgrade eyes from Beijing

Serbia with admiration views the Chinese development model”, Vuciq wrote in Instagram on May 20th after meeting with Chinese Ambassador Li Ming.

“For Serbia is of particular importance building strong partnerships with friendly states that respect our independence and the right to our path”, he said.

Belgrade and Beijing agree on key political issues for both countries.

Vladsavlev from the EPE Foundation remembers that both sides often in statements stress the need to respect territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Serbia does this because of Kosovo, which China does not recognise as an independent state and for China this issue is Taiwan”.

Authorities in Belgrade back the Chinese stance that Taiwan is China's territory, while Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state.

Vuciq, during his visit to China in October 2023, said he is proud that Serbia has not joined any statements against this country.

Relations with China have been strengthened since the Serbian Progressive Party's coming to power (SNS) in Serbia 12 years ago.

In an effort to get closer to China, Vuciq also spoke Chinese when in December 2019, through a video message, he announced in Chinese that he would visit the country in April of next year.

Serbia's president has been in China for the last time in September 2025, when he participated in the Victory Day parade. / REL