President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he had had a “substantive discussion” with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić about the European integration of both their countries.
Writing on X, Zelensky said: “there are areas where we can assist one another. We also addressed opportunities for cooperation in regional security. Our countries share this interest, and we will work on it.”
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“We went over the international agenda for the near future and agreed to stay in contact and continue coordination,” he added.
On Oct. 30, Vučić told German magazine Cicero that Serbia is ready to supply ammunition to the EU – some of which is likely to be transferred to Ukraine.
He emphasized that his country (which he claimed produces more mortar shells than France) would remain militarily neutral, although the buyers of Serbian ammunition “can do what they want with it.”
As per Euronews, the Serbian president visited Ukraine for the first time in June to attend the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit. Notably, Zelensky did not invite representatives from Kosovo to attend.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and has since been recognized by every Group of Seven (G7) country. Ukraine has always maintained a position of neutrality – for example, by abstaining from a 2023 vote on Kosovo joining the international human rights body Council of Europe.
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Serbia’s EU accession process, which began in 2009, has been slowed by its refusal to recognize Kosovo. More recently, Serbia has become the only country in Europe to refuse to impose sanctions on Russia over its full-scale war in Ukraine.
As per AP, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged Vučić in October to “get concrete” about his professed goal of bringing Serbia, a traditional ally of Russia, into the EU.
“We live in a fractured world with a widening gap between democracies and autocracies,” she told him at a joint press conference. “And you know very well where the European Union stands.”
On Tuesday, Russian state media TASS reported that Vučić would not compromise on Kosovo or Ukraine for the sake of Serbia’s accession to the EU.
“Do you think we must do this? I don’t. No problem, just do this and you’ll be in the European Union in a year. This is pure geopolitics, nothing else,” he reportedly said.
On May 9, Vučić and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico were the only two European leaders to attend Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Nevertheless, the Serbian leader appears to be keeping his options open.