European Council on Foreign Relations: Serbia and 5G Deal with Washington

BETAPHOTO/Kancelarija za IT I eUpravu/Predrag Vuckovic/DS

There is no reason for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to willingly turn his back on China, from which he draws a great deal of political capital, masterfully using the bilateral relationship to build the image a leader looking eastwards and westwards alike, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said in a Sept. 23 article analysing a clause related to China's Huawei, which was among the commitments Serbia and Kosovo accepted when they signed an agreement at the White House on Sept. 4.

In the article "Serbia's 5G Deal with Washington: The Art of Muddling Through," the authors say that the long list of commitments the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo signed in Washington included a few promises that were unrelated to the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, one of those that both sides accepted being to prohibit the use of 5G equipment from "untrusted vendors," and remove it if it had been installed already.

The analysis indicates that there are many reasons to believe that the Serbian government will not act soon to replace the existing Huawei equipment in Serbia, or to exclude the company from future 5G bids, as there's plenty of room to ignore the clause.