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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic Photo: AFP
The photo showing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic sitting across from United States President Donald Trump, who was sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, went viral. Vucic, in the words of many netizens, “looked like an employee in front of his boss.” On September 4, the Serbian president signed a “historic” economic agreement with his Kosovo counterpart in the White House.
The photo quite demonstrates the hegemonic American style. The current US administration ignores the principle of equality and diplomatic etiquette in international relations. If you want to come to terms with the United States, you must look at the United States as if the world revolves around the United States. What “America First” means is that other countries cannot be on an equal footing with it, but must prioritize it.
There are no joint public signatures, official ceremony or handshakes between the two interested parties, Serbia and Kosovo, raising questions about the binding power of this agreement. Apparently, Serbia and Kosovo have agreed to a temporary thaw of relations, despite their deep enmity and mistrust. What is striking is the strange introduction of Israel into their relations.
American selfishness is clear. That Muslim-majority Kosovo agreed to recognize Israel, and Vucic promised that Serbia would move its representative offices in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem just to serve US interests. Israel’s international status.
With a strong preference for Israel, Trump is creating new confrontations in the Middle East and the Balkans. The deal under the auspices of Trump only sows the seeds of trouble in the regions. As Eric Gordy of University College London wrote in Balkan Insight, “Israel’s unexpected introduction into the Serbia-Kosovo dispute puts Kosovo and Palestine on an unnecessary collision course that benefits neither.” As a supposed mediator, Trump never brings peace to mind, nor does he care about regional stability. American diplomacy, more than ever, pursues its own interests at the expense of others, which will seriously damage the international reputation of the United States.
Serbia’s signing of the pact with Kosovo will have more geopolitical implications for Russia, and Russia is probably not happy about that, prompting Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova to tweet a controversial photo, but then the removed. Serbia may have found itself in an embarrassing situation. In an interview with Pink, a Serbian television channel, Vucic said that he defended relations with China when he was in the White House and also defended Serbia’s close ties with Russia during his stay in the United States.
The photo of Vucic in the White House that went viral also sparked immense discussions among Chinese netizens, who expressed contrasting opinions about the message the photo sent and whether diplomatic protocol gave way to practical interests. Some showed sympathy and said that it is not easy for small countries located in geopolitically sensitive areas to face intimidating hegemony, while others said that small countries must strive to be independent in the face of coercion from powers like the United States.
China always maintains that all nations, large or small, must be equal. For us, agreements reached through heavy-handed tactics will be difficult to maintain.
