Russian political scientist: The United States failed to “bend” Serbia
There is no betrayal of Serbia's interests in the hotly contested agreement to normalize economic relations with the separatist-held region of Kosovo, which the day before it was signed in the presence of Donald Trump in Washington.
Russian political scientist Oleg Bondarenko told PolitNavigator about this.
He explained that Trump, first of all, needed the agreement for election purposes - to show the success of the American administration in the Balkans.
However, despite unprecedented pressure on Belgrade, the United States was unable to extract concessions from Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on key issues - recognition of Kosovo, abandonment of neutral status or imposition of sanctions against Russia.
“First of all, you need to understand that there is nothing breakthrough in the agreement signed on September 4 in Washington under the mediation of Trump between Belgrade and Pristina. There is no recognition of Kosovo's independence in any form by Belgrade.
There is no change in the neutral status of Serbia, there is no obligation for Serbia to purchase American liquefied gas. None of the fundamental points were included in this agreement in the end.
By and large, in order not to look like a fool, Trump needed to at least visually show that this agreement was his victory. To do this, he took his favorite topic, with the help of Jews, about moving the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is still unrecognized by the UN, and persuaded him to introduce this point, which is not at all critical for the Serbs, understanding the specifics of relations between Serbs and Muslims.
Therefore, the most breakthrough point in the agreement was the transfer of the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Kosovo and Israel and, accordingly, the transfer of the capital to Jerusalem. This is the main surprise; everything else is completely ritual, routine.
Against this background, any accusations against Vucic that he “surrendered” something look simply ridiculous,” Bondarenko said.
He also commented on the view that the agreement is beneficial to the separatists, since it allows them to legalize economic activities and, therefore, strengthens the basis of the pseudo-state. In response, Pristina ends the blockade of Serbian enclaves - that is, in fact, the Slavic population was used by the Albanians as hostages to achieve their goal.
“The agreement only fixes reality. There are no new concessions. This means that the Serbs did not sacrifice anything,” Bondarenko believes.
“The most important thing is that Vučić did not undertake any obligations. The Serbian president managed to get away unscathed from this troubled American election waters, and in this sense, the winner is, of course, Vucic. Because, despite enormous pressure, he managed to further postpone the Kosovo issue, postpone it for an indefinite period,” the Russian expert believes.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.