The first strategic dialogue between the USA and Serbia was loudly announced in mid-last year, but it has not taken place to this day. It was originally planned to be implemented by the end of 2025 and was presented as something that would “raise relations between Serbia and America to a completely new level”.
We heard that it was a “new page” and a “new phase”, as well as an opportunity for a “reset of relations” between the two countries. A broad range of topics was supposed to be on the table – from the economy and security to culture. However, all of this is still on hold. NIN’s interlocutors believe that the strategic dialogue between the two countries will nevertheless take place soon, although it is rarely mentioned, and they cite both political and energy-related reasons for this kind of “pause”.
At the beginning of August last year, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the head of Serbian diplomacy, Marko Đurić, agreed at a meeting in Washington that the USA and Serbia would hold a bilateral strategic dialogue before the end of 2025 in order to deepen the two countries’ economic and security ties. At the time, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated that “the USA is committed to a mutually beneficial relationship with Serbia that serves our citizens and our interests”, while Đurić said he hoped that relations between Belgrade and Washington would “return to the level they were at in the time of our ancestors”. He described the meeting with Rubio as historic.
“A strategic dialogue has been agreed, covering a range of topics – such as the economy, energy, defence, culture, state visits and all other issues that can improve our cooperation and return diplomatic relations to the level they were at during the time of some of our ancestors,” Đurić told RTS at the time. He also proposed that US President Donald Trump visit Serbia, which would otherwise be the first visit by a US president to Belgrade in more than 40 years.
The strategic dialogue was also mentioned recently in a New Year message by the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Alexander Titolo, who said they were looking forward in 2026 to the “launch of the first strategic dialogue between the USA and Serbia – this dialogue will open new paths of cooperation aimed at stability, peace and prosperity for America, Serbia and the region.”
“An extremely useful platform”
Petar Ivić from the Pupin Initiative assesses for NIN that the strategic dialogue has been postponed because of the issue of NIS.
“Although at first glance it might be concluded that the dialogue has not yet been launched due to the administration’s focus on other hotspots such as Venezuela, Iran or Greenland, this is not true. US engagement in the region has not diminished, which we can see in the recent National Defense Authorization Act, where the USA recognises energy diversification in the region as a strategic interest. The answer to this question lies in energy. The NIS issue is the main obstacle to launching the dialogue, and the months-long delay in resolving it has certainly prolonged the process. Energy is also one of the key topics the dialogue would address, and lacking energy sovereignty and depending on a single actor, in this case Russia, is far from optimal. However, everything indicates that a solution for NIS is on the horizon, and we hope that the launch of the strategic dialogue will follow the resolution of the situation,” says Ivić.
He points out that the dialogue itself represents an extremely useful platform for the institutionalised exchange of interests between the USA and Serbia and for deepening cooperation at ministerial level in areas such as energy, defence, the economy, and so on.
“The key consequence is that Serbia thus enables itself always to be at the table when important decisions are made, and not on it,” Ivić emphasises.
“Political dissatisfaction”
Petar Milutinović, a researcher at the Institute for European Studies, tells NIN that the fact that the strategic dialogue has not taken place may indicate political dissatisfaction in Washington with Belgrade’s current course, and that “in that sense, the delay is not technical, but essentially political”.
“American priorities have shifted towards Ukraine, China and the internal strengthening of NATO, but this only partially explains the absence of dialogue. The key reason lies in the assessment that Serbia is pursuing a foreign policy that is difficult for the USA to read and even harder to rely on. The policy of ‘strategic autonomy’ or balancing, which in Belgrade is presented as rational, is increasingly perceived in Washington as avoiding a clear commitment. In that context, a strategic dialogue would make sense for the American side only if there were a minimum degree of strategic alignment on fundamental issues, primarily regarding relations with Russia, the region’s security architecture and the normalisation of relations with Pristina. As such alignment does not currently exist, the dialogue is being kept in the status of a potential instrument of pressure, rather than a genuinely open process,” Milutinović stresses.
According to him, for Serbia the strategic dialogue would have a limited, but not insignificant, reach.
“It would not mean a change in American policy towards Kosovo, nor would it bring unconditional political or economic support. Its value would lie in the institutionalisation of communication and the reduction of room for miscalculations, as well as in more clearly defining the USA’s red lines towards Serbia,” Milutinović states.
He concludes that “the absence of a strategic dialogue at present is not the result of forgetfulness or a lack of time in Washington, but a message that without clearer foreign policy alignment by Serbia, there can be no ‘strategic’ relationship in the full sense of the word”.
Suspended dialogue with Pristina
The USA conducts strategic dialogue with dozens of countries around the world. Talks are held at a high level, and the main goal of this practice is to improve bilateral relations. Among those with whom America conducts dialogue are France, the United Kingdom, Greece, Austria, Poland, Moldova, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Egypt. Such dialogue has also been conducted with Romania, Slovenia and North Macedonia, and it is interesting that in September 2025 Washington suspended the planned strategic dialogue with Kosovo indefinitely because, as announced at the time, moves by the government of Albin Kurti had “increased tensions and instability, limiting the ability of the USA to productively engage with Kosovo on shared priorities”.
(NIN, 22.01.2026)
https://www.nin.rs/politika/vesti/101448/strateski-dijalog-sad-i-srbije