Russia’s foreign ministry slammed a decision by Serbia’s neighbours to close their air space to Sergei Lavrov’s plane, forcing the cancellation of his visit to Belgrade.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, October 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Following days of uncertainty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia was cancelled on Monday after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft – a move that that Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova described as “another closed channel of communication”
Zakharova confirmed a report by Reuters news agency that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow’s top diplomat to Serbia, the only European country that refuses to impose sanctions on Russia.
“The Russian delegation was supposed to arrive in Belgrade for talks. EU member states and NATO have closed the airspace, closed another channel of communication,” Zakharova said, Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
She accused the EU of seeking to isolate Russia.
“There will ultimately be no iron curtains from us, you don’t have to worry. The EU is the one that is closing off Russia with a curtain,” she said.
On June 2, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that complications had arisen with Lavrov’s planned visit to Belgrade.
The situation was particularly uncomfortable for Serbia, an EU membership candidate country, because three days after the announced Lavrov visit, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was scheduled to arrive in Serbia.
Asked whether it would, be “bad news” if the German chancellor did not come to Belgrade because of Lavrov’s visit, Vucic said that it would, but hoped that such an outcome would be avoided.
The Serbian president noted that according to an opinion survey, 77 per cent of Serbian people are against imposing sanctions on Russia. He said that Serbia condemns what is happening in Ukraine, but that it “does not believe in sanctions”.
“We do not want to choose sides in this war,” he added.
Serbia voted for a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, but has so far refused to join EU sanctions on Russia, despite being a candidate for membership of the bloc, which would involve aligning its foreign policies with those of EU states.
Serbia maintains strong ties with Russia as well as having a heavy energy reliance on Moscow. After Vucic had a telephone conversation with Vladmir Putin on May 29, the Serbian president announced that he agreed a favorable gas price for Russian imports which would be calculated on the basis of the price of oil.
Belgrade also sees Moscow’s backing on Kosovo as highly important. Like Serbia, Russia does not recognise the independence of Kosovo, and Moscow holds the power of veto at the UN Security Council, which it can use to block Kosovo from joining the UN.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
