The American news agency Associated Press (AP) writes that the European Union's (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kalas stated in Belgrade today that "Serbia faces a 'strategic choice' of direction, just weeks after President Aleksandar Vučić, defying EU warnings, attended the Russian Victory Day parade in Moscow."
"Serbia is facing a strategic, geostrategic choice of where it wants to be," said Kalas, adding that "Serbia's European future depends on the values it chooses."
AP, in its article "EU foreign policy chief urges Serbia to make 'strategic choice' between West and East", writes that "Vučić's appearance in Moscow at the May 9 parade was widely condemned in Brussels, and EU officials warned that such actions seriously jeopardize Serbia's path to the EU... given Russia's bloody invasion of Ukraine".
Kalas said that during the visit she spoke with Vučić and "expressed her views, which are very clear."
"I really don't understand why it's necessary to stand shoulder to shoulder with a person who is waging a terrible war in Ukraine," she said, adding that "President Vučić was explaining his side of the story. So. Yes, we had a very extensive discussion about that."
Vučić, who the AP writes is "a former extreme nationalist who has been criticized at home and abroad for his alleged increasingly authoritarian ways of governing, maintains close relations with both Russia and China, while formally saying he wants Serbia to join the EU."
Vučić said his decision to attend Putin's military parade "was part of an effort to maintain 'traditional friendships,'" the agency reported.
"Serbia, which relies almost entirely on Russia for energy, has refused to fully join Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and has not supported most EU statements condemning that aggression," the AP notes, adding that Vučić "is also under pressure from six months of massive anti-corruption protests."
Although she said that from her conversations with Serbia's political leadership, "it is clear to her that EU membership remains a strategic goal," Kalas pointed out: "However, I want to emphasize that we also need to see actions to prove and support those words."
"Reforms are the way Serbia will progress on its path towards the EU," said Kallas, pointing out that "there are no shortcuts to membership," but "real progress must be achieved here, in Belgrade."
She said she also met with "youth" protesting, AP reports, and called on Serbia to make serious efforts in media freedom, the fight against corruption and electoral reform "as demanded by hundreds of thousands of protesters in recent weeks."
"The autonomy of universities must be respected," she said.
AP writes that Kalas left Belgrade for Kosovo and that "negotiations between the two neighboring countries, mediated by the EU, have long been frozen," and that the high representative said that normalizing relations between Serbia and Kosovo is "fundamental" for their European future.
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"It is time for these two countries to overcome the past and focus on a shared future," she said, adding that she plans to invite representatives of Belgrade and Pristina to Brussels as soon as possible to discuss concrete steps forward.
The AP concludes that six Western Balkan countries are in various stages of joining the EU, and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has encouraged European leaders, fearing instability, to advocate for these countries to join the European bloc.
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