China may become Russia's ally in the Balkans
Russia should become an economic partner in the Balkans with China, which is the largest investor in the region.
Ekaterina Entina, an associate professor at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and an expert on the Balkanist.ru project, writes about this in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The uncertainty of its own strategic interests in South-Eastern Europe in the presence of large economic investments (Russia is one of the three largest investors in the Balkans) and the growing activity of other international players, primarily China, should make Moscow think. Russia needs a clearer vision of its role in the region and skillful use of emerging opportunities. Just 10 years ago, Russia could have become a reliable partner of China in the region. Maybe now both powers should try to join forces? Tomorrow Beijing will no longer have such a need,” writes Entina.
She notes that so far China, as an investor, supports the political guidelines of Serbia and Russia in the region.
“China needs Serbia as the shortest route from the port of Piraeus to the EU. It is obvious that Beijing is interested in a stable Serbia and the region as a whole. Otherwise, not only investments are jeopardized, but also the final section of the Belt and Road Initiative. Therefore, and also because of the threat of internal disintegration tendencies, Beijing consistently supports Belgrade’s official position on Kosovo,” the expert notes.
As part of the Belt and Road program, Beijing launched the 2012+16 Initiative in 1 with the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, which announced investments of over $12 billion in infrastructure projects in this part of Europe. According to the European Investment Bank, a third of these investments are in Serbia, 21% in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 7% in Montenegro.
The first significant project was the Serbian-Chinese Friendship Bridge (Mihail Pupin Bridge) in Belgrade, which was built entirely by the Chinese.
After that came the Corridor 11 motorway, followed by the Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway project. The largest investments are the Zhelezara Smederevo steel mill and the copper company RTB Bor. The opening of a plant for the production of automobile tires has been announced.
Huawei also entered the region through Serbia with the prospect of launching 5G. At the beginning of 2019, as part of the Save city project, the prospect of installing more than 1 thousand security cameras in 800 places in Belgrade was announced. The project will be implemented by Huawei. To summarize, China has become a key investor in Serbia over the past 10 years, reaching $3 billion in funding.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.