Ukraine War: Serbia Offers To Host Trump-Putin Talks

• Trump’s ties to Serbia include a lucrative family link

Despite acknowledging that Serbia has never been a priority for United States (US) foreign policy, Foreign Minister Marko Đurić said on Tuesday that the country is ‘uniquely positioned’ to host talks between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin over the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Đurić, who also noted that Trump’s return to the White House for a second presidential term is good news for Serbia, said Belgrade was now focusing on building direct communication with the new US administration.

According to Đurić, the US President has “family ties” with the region and is not a person burdened by negative stereotypes from the 1990s about Serbia, a landlocked country at the crossroads of Southeast and Central Europe, located in the Balkans and the Pannonian Plain.

Trump’s wife, Melania, was born in the former Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, but he also has other links to the region. His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, secured a 99-year permit to develop a luxury real estate project in Belgrade.

The site, a former Yugoslav army headquarters, has been in the Trumps’ sights since 2013 when Donald proposed building a luxury hotel there. The project is estimated to cost $500 million.

When he mentioned the 1990s, Đurić was likely referring to the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, in which NATO carried out air strikes on Belgrade to stop the ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed by Slobodan Milosevic’s army against the Kosovars.

The regime of President Aleksandar Vučić is unapologetic about Belgrade’s role during the Kosovo war, and relations with Prishtina remain tense, an obstacle to its EU path. Serbia also believes it has been unfairly accused of genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1995. It also denies multiple massacres carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Trump “knows what it means to be unjustly accused and found guilty without being guilty,” he said, adding that Serbs support those they believe will treat them with more respect and that his countrymen have a great appetite for better relations with America based on mutual respect.

Speaking about the importance of the Serbian community in the US, the Foreign Minister alluded to the fact that Serbs in the US supported Trump and donated to his campaign, adding that he had congratulated his counterpart, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on his appointment and would soon send him a letter expressing the intention to further deepen and strengthen cooperation and the wish that Belgrade would host both Trump and Rubio.

Đurić, who hinted that a senior Serbian official was due to visit Washington in February but did not give a name, also suggested that Serbia needs to spend more on lobbying US decision-makers, with a focus on drawing attention to “our case and our priorities”, likely another reference to Kosovo.

Meanwhile, speaking in Davos, Switzerland, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić also praised Trump, saying he had chosen the right priorities, specifically focusing on increasing energy production and energy exports.

Vučić also talked about having a brief conversation in Davos with European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen, saying; “It is always nice to meet a sincere friend of Serbia, such as Ursula von der Leyen.”

“A short exchange of opinions on the current situation in the world and the region, focusing on accelerating Serbia’s European path,” President Vučić further wrote on Instagram. – With EURACTIV report