Analyst: Washington, NATO Becoming Serbia's Primary Partners in Sphere of Defense

Military exercise (BETAPHOTO/DEFENCE MINISTRY/EV)

Belgrade Center for Security Policy higher associate Vuk Vuksanovic has said that there was the impression that Washington and NATO were becoming Serbia's primary partners in the areas of defense and security policy.

In a statement for the June 15 edition of Danas on the holding of an international military exercise called Platinum Wolf near Bujanovac, Vuksanovic said that the policy of balancing between the East and West had the ability to, depending on needs, "tip toward one or the other side," and that it now seemed that Serbia was in the phase of leaning toward Washington.

"We see this in the cancellation of a moratorium on military exercises, the participation of Serbian soldiers in the international mission in Sinai, the Nis School of Electronics' participation in devising an early warning system for nuclear strikes along NATO borders, as well as the convincing claims that Serbia is supplying Ukraine with ammunition," Vuksanovic said, adding that it was not possible to see the turn in the pro-government media.

"They either do not report these things or report them superficially, placing an emphasis on our balanced policy. This leads us to a paradox where Russia still figures as the dominant foreign policy factor in the country, even though very little is actually happening between Belgrade and Moscow," he said.