Serbia’s Foreign Policy: Divided Loyalties

A NICE summing-up of Serbia’s foreign-policy dilemmas was shown in a recent drawing by Corax, the country’s leading political cartoonist. Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s prime minister, is shown playing two pianos at once, with Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, conducting on one side, and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, conducting on the other. The Serbian government is finding the Ukraine crisis is only adding to the political cacophony.In March Serbia abstained in a UN vote reaffirming the territorial integrity of Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea. As a candidate for European Union membership, it was heavily criticised for this by its partners. Officially the reason was that Serbia had only a caretaker government. But the real reason was that it did not want to annoy its traditional ally, Russia.Since then Serbia has desperately tried to please both sides. Now its government is clear that, just as Kosovo should be part of Serbia, so Crimea should be part of Ukraine. But much of the press and many Russophile Serbs disagree. A website with contacts for those who want to fight with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine says that the “liberation” of Kosovo is not possible without the liberation of Novorossiya, as the rebels call their territory.The number of Serbs fighting in Ukraine may be no more than 100, but their alleged exploits are widely reported. Mr Vucic…

The Economist: Europe