Serbia Strains Regional Relations: From One Misunderstanding to Another

Serbia Strains Regional Relations: From One Misunderstanding to Another

Serbia has declared that regional ties and good neighborly relations are topping the list of the country’s foreign policy priorities, but its relations with the neighbors have hit a rough patch, marking the lowest point in years. The only uncomplicated friendship Belgrade seems to be maintaining currently is with the Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, and its leader, Milorad Dodik, who, from the position of the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is additionally complicating regional affairs.

Attempts by Germany and France, the two leading states in the European Union (EU), to revive a dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, encourage the region to work together and sort out regional disputes have failed and not one of several top-level regional summits has produced a tangible outcome.

A conference in Berlin, convened late last April by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, was attended by the West Balkans Six (WB6) and only two members of the Union, Slovenia, and Croatia, which were invited as well-versed neighbors. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic openly criticized the selection of participants, saying that the conference was an opportunity to “disclose everyone’s take on Kosovo and Serbia.” The conference was supposed to continue in Paris, on July 1, but it didn’t as neither Pristina nor Belgrade were ready to budge on their firmly entrenched positions.