USA: Serbia To Think Hard About Where Its National Interests Lie

U.S. ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

The U.S. knows well that Serbia has a long and hard history of sanctions and it has an understanding for it, but Belgrade needs to think hard about where its interests lie and recognize that they lie with the West, Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Serbia, has said.

“I’d like to warn the Serbs that they need to understand that this is not their “Mother Russia.” We’re dealing with a very different Russia,” the American ambassador has said in an interview for the RTS public service. Hill added that he knows this is hard for Serbia, and that it has a decades-long history of good relations with Russia, but the Russia currently at war is not the same country -- “it brutally attacks its neighbors.”

“If you look at Europe, only a small number of countries, I believe it is only Belarus and Serbia, have not imposed sanctions on Russia. The question is, does Serbia want to stay in that company? Many countries have already imposed sanctions, and it is taking its toll on them. It’s unclear if the sanctions will affect Russia, but they still imposed them, as they understand that they need to present a united front and stand against what Russia is doing,” Hill elaborated.

According to him no one is threatening or forcing Serbia to impose sanctions, but other countries are asking Serbia to make its stand clear.