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TIRANA, June 6 – Serbia and Russia on Monday formally confirmed that a planned visit by Russia’s foreign minister to the Balkan country will not take place, with Moscow accusing the West of preventing the trip.
The announcement followed reports that Serbia’s neighbors — Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro — had refused to allow Sergey Lavrov’s plane to fly through their airspace to reach Serbia.
“An unthinkable thing has happened,” Lavrov said during an online news conference Monday. “A sovereign state has been deprived of its right to conduct foreign policies. The international activities of Serbia on the Russian track have been blocked.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic earlier Monday met with Russia’s ambassador to Serbia who informed him that Lavrov could not come because the Russian government plane was denied necessary flyover permissions, a statement issued after the meeting said.
Vucic expressed “dissatisfaction” over the “circumstances” that prevented the visit and added that “despite all, Serbia will preserve independence and autonomy in political decision-making.”
While formally still seeking European Union membership, Serbia has maintained friendly ties with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, refusing to join Western sanctions against Moscow.
Lavrov blamed NATO countries for engineering the flight ban — Montenegro, Bulgaria and North Macedonia are all members of NATO — noting that the action showed again that the main purpose of the alliance expansion is to try to isolate Russia.
The Russian foreign minister said the West has trampled on the principle of a free choice of foreign policy partners.
“From the Western viewpoint, Serbia mustn’t have any choice, any freedom in choosing its partners,” he said. “The West clearly shows that it would use any base means to apply pressure.
In Belgrade, Serbia’s pro-Russian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin expressed “deep regret” that a “great and proven” friend of Serbia could not come. Vulin added that “Serbia is proud that it is not part of anti-Russian hysteria, and the countries that are (part of it) will have time to be ashamed.”
In the meantime, DP deputy Tritan Shehu said Lavrov showed where “the devil is hidden” in the open Balkans.
“Clearly in Moscow! Lavrov declared support for the open Balkans. He would go to Belgrade to” bless “the open Balkans!” said Shehu on Monday.
Lavrov said the following: “Obviously, those who are pulling the strings in Brussels did not want this (visit), they did not want us to express our support for Belgrade, among others, for the Open Balkans project. It is now clear to everyone that Brussels, NATO and the EU want to return the Balkans to their project called the Closed Balkans.”
For his part Shehu, a former FM, said it is quite clear that Russia wants to orient our countries in the region through Vucic’s “New Yugoslavia”, which has signed the Eurasian Union Treaty with it, towards Moscow. In these circumstances, it is necessary to ask Rama to cancel his participation in Tuesday’s meeting. /Argumentum.al
