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Serbia will emerge from its white-hot political crisis and become a strategically vital “bridge” between the U.S. and its top global adversaries, China and Russia, Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Duric said Friday.
In an exclusive interview with The Washington Times, Mr. Duric said the administration of President Aleksandar Vucic is prepared for an “internal dialogue” with its political opponents amid escalating nationwide protests. Those demonstrations began in November after a deadly roof collapse at a busy train station in the city of Novi Sad reignited public outrage over alleged government corruption and substandard infrastructure projects. Prime Minister Milos Vucevic resigned last month amid those protests.
Mr. Duric said Belgrade is ready to find common ground with the demonstrators. He defended the country’s economic “cooperation” with China and stressed that his country remains willing to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
He said the conservative nationalist Vucic regime is popular with most Serbians and is not as fragile as media narratives suggest. If it survives, the regime is widely expected to have warm ties with the Trump administration over the next four years.
“A heated political debate in Serbia will be a new beginning for the government and for the Serbian Progressive Party because we will, with reinvigorated strength, pursue reforms, economic growth,” he said. “We are hopeful we will be able to … conduct an internal dialogue in Serbia, as part of which we hope to find some common denominators on key strategic priorities with our political opponents.
“But also, my message would be: Don’t be tricked by … loud voices coming from the opposition,” he added. “The silent majority in Serbia is firmly behind the course taken by President Vucic and our government.”
Serbia, a relatively small nation of about 6.6 million, rarely makes headlines in America, but Mr. Duric said the Balkan country occupies a unique strategic position in the clash between the West and its adversaries.
The country is not a member of NATO nor part of the European Union, though it has applied to join the EU. It maintains free trade agreements with Turkey, China and much of the Arab world. Mr. Duric stressed that the nation is “America-friendly” politically and economically but is on friendly diplomatic terms with Russia.
Neither China nor Russia has recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. Washington and much of Europe recognize Kosovo as a fully independent, sovereign state.
Foreign policy circles in the U.S. are wondering whether the Trump administration could reevaluate elements of its stance toward Serbia and Kosovo, potentially pulling American forces from the international Kosovo Force established 25 years ago after a NATO air campaign against the forces of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Richard Grenell, acting director of national intelligence during Mr. Trump’s first term and now the White House special envoy for missions, fueled that talk with several social media posts blasting Prime Minister Albin Kurti ahead of Kosovo’s parliamentary elections.
Mr. Duric made no secret of Serbia’s affinity for Mr. Trump. He said the American president “is a symbol of hope” to his nation.
“For Serbs, President Trump symbolizes [striving for] freedom, sovereignty, economic growth and the type of America people in Serbia used to support and love before the major mishaps of the 1990s,” said Mr. Duric, referring to the NATO bombing campaign in the late 1990s against the Milosevic regime, which the West cast as a necessary step to stop what it called an ethnic cleansing campaign against Kosovar Albanians.
One point Mr. Duric repeatedly made during his interview with The Times was: “We are also seeking a visit by a U.S. president in Serbia.”
As a sign of his country’s continued emergence on the global stage, Mr. Duric pointed out that Belgrade will host the sport, music and culture event Expo 2027 from May through August of that year.
“It’s about refreshing the world’s view of Serbia and for the citizens of Serbia,” he said. “It’s also about getting more than $17 billion … of new infrastructure, housing projects and an entire new part of our capital city of Belgrade, which will be drawing millions of tourists from across the world.”
‘A new world is emerging’
The U.S. has deep concerns about China’s economic investments in Serbia as part of Beijing’s global Belt and Road initiative. A 2022 House Foreign Affairs Committee study estimated that Serbia will hold nearly $8 billion in Chinese loans within 20 years.
“The majority of China’s financing in the Western Balkans consists of opaque government loans. The concern is debt owed to China may become a tool of influence that Beijing can wield in the region,” the committee report said.
Serbia’s annual gross domestic product is $88 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund.
China and Serbia trade heavily. From 2009 to 2021, China invested more than $10 billion in Serbia, much of it in infrastructure projects, according to the business news site China Briefing. Mr. Vucic and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met multiple times, most recently in May in Belgrade.
“President Xi stressed that the ironclad friendship between China and Serbia has stood the test of the changing international landscape,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its description of the meeting. “Such friendship is characterized by profound historical roots, solid political foundation, extensive common interests and strong popular support. Over the past few years, under the leadership of the two presidents, the bilateral relationship has leapfrogged with historic progress.”
Mr. Duric defended China’s investments in his country despite long-standing U.S. concerns under Presidents Biden and Trump about the Belt and Road program. He also rejected the notion that close economic ties with Beijing — or even the threat of “debt traps” that many analysts say China could wield as geopolitical leverage — would undermine Serbia’s relationship with the U.S.
“A new world is emerging in which nations freely choose their alliances and with whom they trade and with whom they cooperate,” the foreign minister said. “I think the time when, let’s say, political ideologies were imposed on countries is in this current period, going into the past.
“And I do believe that Serbia is uniquely placed, given its position in Europe, to be a bridge between some of the major global players,” he said. “This doesn’t mean that our foreign policy doesn’t have a spine. On the contrary, we stick firmly to the Charter of the United Nations, to the principles of international public law and sovereign equality between states.”
Mr. Duric stressed a reality often voiced by other public officials whose nations have taken Chinese money to fund badly needed infrastructure projects: Beijing was one of the only options available.
He pointed to the Smederevo ironworks plant southeast of Belgrade as an example. In 2012, the Serbian government reportedly bought the plant from U.S. Steel for $1 to keep it open. In 2016, China’s Hesteel Group acquired the facility.
“As someone who holds America dear, I was very sad to see when U.S. Steel sold [the plant], which was a key element of our steel industry,” Mr. Duric said. “Our economy was bleeding really severely for a number of years, and then a Chinese company … came and they basically bought the [plant], opened a new furnace, and employed thousands of people, started contributing to our GDP.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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