Analysts: Stoltenberg’s Visit to Belgrade Confirms Partnership between Serbia and NATO

Jens Stoltenberg (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The editor of the New Serbian Political Thought, Djordje Vukadinovic, and a military analyst, Aleksandar Radic, said on Nov. 22 that a visit to Belgrade by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the relationship between Serbia and the North Atlantic Alliance could be described as a “partnership,” but that a completely different perception thereof had been offered to the local public for political reasons.

The two guests at N1 TV said that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and other top-ranking state officials had established a partnership with NATO, while using pro-regime tabloids to promote the idea of Serbia’s “neutral military status” and ability to “make independent decisions as to where to deploy the Army of Serbia.”

Vukadinovic said that Vucic shared two pieces of information during a joint press conference with Stoltenberg – first, that a decision not to hold joint military exercises with the Alliance had been cancelled, and that those responsible for an attack by a group of armed Serbs on the Kosovo police in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska, on Sept. 24, would be processed.

Radic said that Stoltenberg’s visit was very important from the NATO’s point of view, as the Alliance was “sending a message the Balkans wanted.” The military analyst said that “everything the Alliance wants to say, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine, is that it does not want any destabilization in the Balkans.”