Sachs: Serbia is Right to Maintain Good Relations Across the Board, but U.S. Dislikes Neutrality

Jeffrey Sachs (BETAPHOTO/Milan Obradovic)

In an interview for the latest edition of the NIN weekly, U.S. economist, public policy analyst and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs stated that Serbia has every right to strive to maintain good diplomatic relations with all international partners, including the U.S., Russia, the European Union, countries of the Gulf, China and others.

Yet “if there’s one thing the U.S. dislikes,” he added, “it’s neutrality.” “‘You’re either with us or against us,’ is the usual [U.S] stance, which is founded in arrogance and almost never works,” the economist said.

In his opinion, Serbia and the entire Balkans will achieve progress through peace, the renewal of economic relations between the EU and Russia, the maintaining of open trade and cooperation with China, and of strong economic ties between the Balkans and Middle East, as well as through peace in Palestine – achieved via the two-state solution under U.N. supervision – and European partnership with the Chinese Belt and Road initiative.

Asked about the possibility of another Great Depression like the one of the 1920s and 1930s, Sachs concluded that such global economic collapse is unlikely, and that it is more probable the world will experience “growing economic weakness.”