Vucic in Brussels with NATO Secretary General, European Officials

Photo: x.com/SecGenNATO

Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte said in the evening of March 19 that he has spoken with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on further strengthening relations with Serbia and on the significance of maintaining the security of the Balkans.

“Good follow up meeting with @predsednikrs [Vucic] in Brussels after our call two weeks ago. We discussed the critical importance of upholding regional security as well as how to continue to bolster NATO-Serbia relations,” Rutte wrote on X.

Good follow up meeting with @predsednikrs in Brussels after our call two weeks ago. We discussed the critical importance of upholding regional security as well as how to continue to bolster NATO-Serbia relations. pic.twitter.com/SbOWJMDNjK

— Mark Rutte (@SecGenNATO) March 19, 2025

Vucic had previously spoken with Rutte on bilateral cooperation, the situation in Kosovo, the relations between the Army of Serbia and KFOR, as well as the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the main goal of maintaining peace and stability in the region.

According to Vucic, he used the sit-down with the NATO official to open the topic of the trilateral defense cooperation memorandum recently signed by Croatia, Albania and Kosovo. The document, he said, “has opened an arms race in the region” and has violated the sub-regional arms control agreement from 1996. “I’m nearly certain NATO was not notified of this nor of which agreements were violated, but I doubt Pristina, Zagreb or Tirana are particularly worried over that fact,” Vucic added.

Prior to his talk with Rutte, Vucic During met in Brussels with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, Director-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Gert Jan Koopman and European External Action Service (EEAS) Director for the Western Balkans Marko Makovec, and discussed what Serbia should do on its European journey to open clusters in accession negotiations.

“There are two media laws, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media, the law on the voter roll – for which we’re still waiting on a final opinion from the ODIHR. We need to increase alignment with the EU’s foreign policy, the essence of which is occasionally voting in favor of certain declarations on Russia, which I couldn’t promise them,” Vucic explained.

The talk with Kos, Koopman and Makovec also touched on the political situation in Serbia, Vucic said, adding that he “do[es] not want to discuss the opinions he voiced.” “They asked whether the next cabinet will be pro-European and what I anticipate,” he stated.

Following the meeting, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos posted an statement on X saying she reiterated to Vucic that Brussels expects Serbia to be more clearly oriented toward the European Union, which entails a strong civil society and independent media.

Another topic mentioned during the talk was the possibility of Serbia joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

With regards to the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vucic said they all concurred that maintaining peace and stability is “of crucial importance to everyone in the Balkans” and “agreed to jointly work on this.”