Aleksandar Vasovic
BELGRADE (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Belgrade on Thursday to strengthen ties with Serbia and forge closer ties with the West as the country tries to balance European Union membership with closer ties with Russia and China.
Macron and Serbian populist President Aleksandar Vucic are due to discuss issues including the purchase of French Rafale fighter jets made by Dassault, as well as energy and artificial intelligence during the two-day visit.
It was the second meeting between Macron and Vucic this year and followed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Belgrade in May, highlighting Serbia’s strategic position on the edge of the EU, with links to both east and west.
In an op-ed published in Serbia’s pro-government daily Politik, Macron wrote on Thursday that Belgrade could remain independent “only with the support of the EU.”
“When war broke out again on the continent because of Russia… the idea that Serbia could find its own path in the eternal game of balancing between the great powers… was merely an illusion.”
The EU remains Serbia’s largest investor, with hundreds of thousands of Serbs working in Western-owned companies.
Vucic said late on Wednesday that there were unresolved issues surrounding the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, estimated to cost around 3 billion euros ($3.34 billion).
“This is not a question of price, it’s a question of specific guarantees. We have been working on this issue for four days,” he told state-run RTS television.
Dependence on Russian gas
Aleksandar Zivotic, a history lecturer at the University of Belgrade, described the plane sale as a “historic and political departure from Soviet and Russian influence.”
“Such military technology is purchased not only with money but also with the promise of foreign policy positions,” he said.
Belgrade scaled back military cooperation with Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and condemned the aggression, but unlike the EU and other Western countries, has not imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Serbia’s army and air force are loosely based on Soviet technology, but it has also purchased helicopters and transport planes from Airbus, radars from Thales, and French Mistral surface-to-air missiles.
Belgrade, which is seeking to diversify its gas supplies, is dependent on Russian gas and has won the Kremlin’s support for its opposition to Kosovo’s 2008 independence.
Vucic said he would cooperate with Macron in the areas of energy and artificial intelligence and that the two countries would sign several related agreements.
Before joining the EU, Serbia will need to improve democracy, the rule of law and its judicial system, eradicate corruption, bureaucracy and organized crime, and align its foreign policy with EU policies, including the imposition of sanctions against Russia.
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