“There are so many misunderstandings”
Serbia’s Foreign Minister Marko Djuric on the war in Ukraine, the relationship with the great powers and his hopes for EU membership. He sees the cooperation with Albania as a great success.
“There are so many misunderstandings”
The young politician Marko Djuric has already achieved a lot in his life. He is the youngest advisor to lead the foreign policy team in the presidential office, was Serbia’s ambassador to the United States and a member of the delegation that negotiated Serbia’s membership in the European Union. Djuric also worked as director of the Office for Kosovo and Metochia, where he was confronted with extraordinarily demanding state and security policy challenges. Under his leadership, around 2500 houses for Serbian citizens in Kosovo were newly built or rebuilt and 45 destroyed Orthodox churches, monasteries and places of worship were completely or partially reconstructed. In 2019, Foreign Minister Marko Djuric completed the Berlin Marathon. He is married and the father of three daughters.
Weltwoche: Mr. Foreign Minister, let us first talk about the painful war in Ukraine. How is Serbia dealing with the situation in Ukraine? What is the biggest challenge right now?
Marko Djuric: The war in Ukraine has a profound impact on the Balkans, not just on Serbia. In Serbia, we have been trying to shift the focus of our policies over the last ten years, emphasising economic growth, the development of our infrastructure and the reconstruction of relations with the rest of Europe. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have come to Serbia. Our main focus at the moment is to maintain stability in our region and to achieve positive economic growth despite the terrible war.
Weltwoche: In my conversation with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, he painted a very gloomy picture regarding the expansion of the war. Do you share this assessment, or are there bright spots?
Djuric: All the heads of state and government of the world should understand the seriousness of the situation and the possible effects of the conflict. This is a conflict between great powers. It affects all of humanity in one way or another, be it economically, politically or militarily, sometimes even culturally.
We hear our politicians say that Russia should never win this military conflict. How big is the risk of a nuclear escalation in the Ukraine war?
Djuric: First of all, it should be noted that Serbia is fully on the side of international law and the UN Charter in this conflict. Which means that we condemn all acts of aggression against sovereign and recognised states and fully support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine throughout its territory. We should all try to find a kind of armistice, a compromise. The prerequisite for this is that the killing and the atrocities stop. We have suffered so much in the former Yugoslavia and we know that gun violence cannot resolve political conflicts.
Weltwoche: How can we bring peace to Ukraine? What would be your proposal at an EU meeting?
Djuric: Serbia maintains that war as a conflict resolution is a crime under international law and any form of aggression is unacceptable.
Weltwoche: You were Serbian’s ambassadors to the United States. What role is the United States playing in all this difficult situation?
Djuric: I believe that it is a concern of the great powers to get involved and try to end the fights. And there must be a political will and a dialogue. I think it would be extremely important to use the United Nations as a platform for this dialogue as part of the global efforts to resolve this conflict.
Weltwoche:,How much is the pressure on Serbia to take sides in this conflict?
Djuric: We firmly believe that Serbia must pursue a balanced foreign policy and that it can thereby contribute to regional stability. However, we are not neutral when it comes to values such as the territorial integrity of Ukraine. But we have the special situation that both Ukraine and the Russian Federation support our view of our territorial integrity, especially in the case of the province of Kosovo.
Weltwoche: In the Western world there is a theory that only the Russian president is to blame for everything. Of course, this is an obstacle to any kind of dialogue. Do you understand this “Western” view?
Djuric: The deep ideological contrasts between the two sides have become increasingly apparent in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union. One would have expected that Russia and Europe would come closer in the long term. We should always ask ourselves if we have done enough to bridge this gap. Serbia is a country that is very often criticised by both sides. Sometimes from Russia, because we vote for UN resolutions condemning the invasion of Ukraine. Sometimes also because we have a more differentiated approach towards Russia than some of the countries in the region. Because Serbia has a long, exhausting history as the West in the East or as the East in the West. This does not detract from the fact that one of our most important priorities is accession to the European Union.
Weltwoche: What is the biggest misunderstanding about Serbia right now?
Djuric: There are so many misunderstandings. I almost don’t know where to start. Our country has completely changed in recent decades. Even the skyline of Belgrade is completely changed. Economic growth and infrastructure development are considerable. Belgrade has been awarded the contract to organise Expo 2027, which is a big deal. Serbia is the first European country to introduce computer programming as a compulsory subject in primary schools. We want to be accepted as an equal member of the international community, especially the European one. Even if we are not a large state.
Weltwoche: Are the big states trying to talk us into a new kind of cold war, or is that just a hallucination?
Djuric: It is not really new that great powers are trying to impose their worldviews and their foreign policy. What is new is that all this, in conjunction with the new technologies, means a much stronger interference in the domestic political debates from various ideological directions. But we have an interest in serving those for whom we represent. Serbia has refused to introduce any kind of censorship for any media. Everyone is free to say what he wants. We also say this in Washington, Brussels, Moscow and Beijing.
Weltwoche: Are China or Russia enemies of the West?
Djuric: It is not up to me to make such a statement. But I can see that they are not the enemies of Serbia. And we strive to solve global problems through dialogue rather than conflict. We don’t believe in mechanisms like sanctions. Our former communist regime was cruel to all communities in the former Yugoslavia, including the Serbian community, but also to others. It was sanctioned, but they did nothing, but on the contrary, they strengthened the regime.
Weltwoche: Why does Serbia still want to become a member of the European Union, even though these member states such as Hungary or Poland do not treat them with the necessary respect, to say the least?
Djuric: We in Serbia like to be part of a larger project. If you look at our story, we tried twice to unite the South Slavs, but we failed. Now we would like to participate in the European project, hopefully more successfully. We do not come to the European table to ask for money. We actually come up with a very healthy economy, even if we are not as rich as some of the Western countries. But we have more than doubled the size of our gross domestic product in less than a decade. On the one hand, we believe that with seven million additional pairs of hands, we can contribute to a stronger Europe. On the other hand, we are convinced that we can better protect our own national interests if we have a seat at the European table. But I do not see an immediate opportunity for us to join the European Union in the next two or three years – not because we do not want to, but because we lack political willingness.
Weltwoche: A major issue as far as EU membership is concerned, of course, is Kosovo. Serbia is unlikely to be accepted without recognising the independent state of Kosovo.
Djuric: First of all, Serbia is fully committed to maintaining peace and stability in Kosovo. In the last two and a half years, there have been a number of one-sided, uncoordinated actions by the local government aimed at unilaterally changing the situation on the ground. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Pristina has more or less tried to gain control of the areas with a Serbian majority population in northern Kosovo, mainly by violent means. Municipalities are run by Albanian mayors, where 97 to 99 percent live with Serbs. The government of Kosovo has violently taken illegitimate measures to administer these areas. We do not see the Albanians in the Balkans as our enemies, because we share the region in which we live and have many cultural traditions in common. We can only create a prosperous and stable region if we work together. A good example is bilateral cooperation between Serbia and Albania, where the presidents will inform. President Vucic and Prime Minister Rama have succeeded in building such a relationship that has enabled us to create a uniform labour market between Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia. In recent years, more than 200,000 Serbian tourists have visited the Albanian coast. And thousands of Albanian workers have come to central Serbia to build the new neighbourhoods of Belgrade.
Weltwoche: Minister of Foreign Affairs, thank you very much for this conversation.
(R.K. Weltwoche)
