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How the public sees the government’s decision to cancel military activities with all partners for six months
While part of the savvy public points out that the decision to stop military exercises with Belarus and harmonize with the West is a natural cooperation, to others this still seems like a concession under pressure that calls into question the independence of Serbia.
Photo: FoNet / MODExperts agree on one thing: the Serbian government’s decision to stop all military exercises with partners in the next six months will only affect relations with Russia and Belarus, and indicates that Serbia is moving its foreign policy closer to the West.
The Serbian government decided to suspend all military exercises and all military activities with all partners for the next six months, and Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that Serbia was under terrible and undeserved pressure from the European Union due to the exercise. planned military with Belarus and Russia. NATO headquarters later announced that they had not even planned exercises with Serbia.
Dimitrije Milić, director of programs of the Novi treći put organization, noted that a message was sent to the public that the exercises were canceled with all partners so that Serbia would maintain the appearance of neutrality, but that with this gesture it is still approaching the western politics.
– This is an attempt to send a coherent policy that we are a neutral military state, but the exercises were canceled only with Belarus, considering that there is pressure from the West, which has put Belarus under sanctions. In essence, it is always a foreign policy challenge of the “four pillars” that we lead, and when we have to choose, the eastern partners often lose, Milić concludes.
He adds that it should be taken into account that Serbia makes the most investment and economic cooperation with the European Union, as well as that we are surrounded by NATO member countries, and we are expected to tune in to them.
– Getting closer to the West is a more natural cooperation for us in terms of the situation on the ground. The Washington agreement only forced Serbia to be more in the framework of that pro-Western policy, and our room for maneuver was reduced in favor of the United States, he concluded.
On the other hand, this rapprochement with the West, says Zivadin Jovanovic, former head of diplomacy for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, is the result of concessions from Serbia under pressure and may raise the question of Serbian independence with other foreign partners.
– There is no doubt that this is a forced movement by the Government of Serbia and that it is the result of unilateral pressure from Western factors. I am not sure that this is the best response to pressure because it gives reason to ask how independent, sovereign and autonomous Serbia is. The decision to stop all military exercises cannot hide the fact that the decision is a consequence of the dictates of the West. We can ask the question, how would Serbia react if Russia at the time requested to stop the military exercises with NATO? I think that Serbia, theoretically speaking, would not accept pressure from Russia, Jovanovic noted. He adds that with this movement, and with the signing of the Washington papers, “Serbia” was drawn into the global confrontation of the great powers.
The media wrote yesterday that the decision to halt the military exercises came after European Parliament envoy Vladimir Bilchik raised the issue of the Serbian army’s participation in the exercise with Belarus, stating that Germany supported him. In an H1 statement, Bilicik dismissed these accusations as absurd.
Malinović: Misleading the public about the reasons for the cancellation
General Sreto Malinovic, a retired DS member, said yesterday that “the Serbian government’s decision to cancel all exercises of the Serbian army with foreign armed forces due to pressure from the EU is more than a hypocritical substitution of thesis and an attempt to mislead the public about the real reasons, “especially considering that all the planned exercises were with Russia and there were no agreed exercises with the NATO countries.”
What should seriously concern us, Malinovic said in a written statement, is not the cancellation of the exercises, “but part of an agreement that de facto creates enemies in the Arab world and potentially endangers the humanity of our units in the mission of peacekeeping in Lebanon “. deployed along the border with Israel in places under Hezbollah control, which we put our finger in the eye. “
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