Expert: No Fundamental Change In Serbia's Foreign Policy Towards West And U.S.

Dragan Djukanovic (BETAPHOTO/MEDIJA CENTAR BEOGRAD/MO)

The president of the Center for Foreign Policy and professor of the Faculty of Political Studies in Belgrade, Dragan Djukanovic, stated on Sept. 24 that, regardless of the recent meeting in Washington and the U.S. delegation's visit to Belgrade, there has been no fundamental change in Serbia's foreign policy towards the West.

Djukanovic told BETA that Serbia was one of the rare countries that has not signed a strategic partnership agreement with the United States, which it has with a number of Asian countries, with Russia, China and even some European states, like Italy and France.

"It is hard to say that this course was now changing, it has been going on continuously for two decades now. It has not fundamentally changed in 2000, either, when there was an opportunity. As time passes, we will have less possibilities to make a fundamental radical U-turn towards the West. This is just a mild inclination towards the West – not a fundamental change in Serbia's foreign policy," the professor said.

He added that Serbia also had open issues with the U.S., such as the killing of the Bytyqi brothers just after the NATO intervention and the unsolved issue of prosecuting those responsible for the arson at the U.S. Embassy in February 2008.