Serb president blasts world leaders for ‘double – Latest News
It’s troublesome to put Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic on anyone aspect of the geopolitical divide nowadays — and that could be simply the way in which he likes it.
The eager chess participant, who retains a board in his workplace in Belgrade, has cast strategic and quite sophisticated alliances across the world — a philosophy that guided Yugoslavia’s former longtime Communist chief Josip Broz Tito, who adopted an impartial worldwide path, sustaining relationships with Western nations in addition to rogue states amid his well-known breakup with Soviet chief Joseph Stalin during the peak of the Cold War.
Today, Vucic, 56, has managed to take care of close ties to Israel whereas remaining comparatively impartial on the struggle in Gaza. In an unique interview with The Post this week, he stated that the day after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he obtained a personal call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanking him for fast-tracking crucial army provides and ammunition to Israel in a file three days on the pressing request of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who known as him on the day of the assault that left 1,200 Israelis useless.
President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia is pictured during his go to to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
In New York City for the UN General Assembly this week, Vucic stated he was assembly with everybody from European bureaucrats to African leaders and Middle Eastern heads of state. Despite his nation’s close ties to Russia and China, he stated he additionally had productive conferences with Trump administration officers, together with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
“I believe this is a unique opportunity to get closer to the States,” Vucic instructed The Post on the Trump International Hotel overlooking Central Park Thursday. “There is a big window of opportunity, especially regarding energy sector cooperation.”
Still, it’s a powerful geopolitical balancing act, he stated, including that his allies in Russia admonished him when he started chatting with the Trump administration. “There is no side in the world that is not criticizing me,” he stated.
“There is no other way for us to survive,” he continued. “We are at a crossroads. We are getting Russian gas still although we are doing our best to diversify. What do you want us to do? To impose sanctions against Russia? I cannot. I have to take care of our people. At the same time people want us to start cursing Americans for what happened 27 years ago. I cannot do it because that would be very stupid and very harmful and I don’t want to see Serbia quarreling and brawling with the United States of America.”
The Parliament building of Serbia is pictured on Friday, May 31, 2013, in Belgrade, Serbia. David Brown – stock.adobe.com
NATO bombed the previous Yugoslavia — Serbia and Montenegro — in 1999 over former Yugoslav chief Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal crackdown in Kosovo.
Serbia has since been thought of one thing of a pariah state, slammed within the West for its close ties to Russia.
Traditionally, Serbia has purchased most of its fuel and oil from Russia’s Gazprom. Despite US sanctions towards Russia, the US has not penalized Serbia for counting on Russian power provides, Vucic stated.
“So far we haven’t felt the consequences from sanctions because Americans were taking care of us in a way that we don’t feel it,” he stated.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers remarks during an award ceremony for staff of the protection industry in honor of Armourer’s Day on the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. ZUMAPRESS.com
But not everyone seems to be on his aspect. US Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) is co-sponsoring a bipartisan invoice to sanction Serbia for its relationships with nations hostile to the US, and has slammed Vucic’s authorities for corruption and undermining human rights and the rule of law — criticisms that Vucic strongly denied. “The people of Serbia deserve better,” Wilson stated in a latest X post.
Mass protests erupted in Serbia following the death of 16 people after a railway cover collapsed in Novi Sad in November 2024. The protests exploded into the largest mass demonstrations within the nation’s historical past and led to the resignations of a Serbian prime minister and the previous mayor of Novi Sad.
Vucic stated the protests had been organized by his political opponents and international powers, equivalent to Croatia and nongovernmental organizations within the US, to destabilize his authorities.
Despite Serbia’s close ties to Russia, Vucic stated his nation firmly helps Ukraine’s proper to its territorial integrity. The concern is significant to Vucic: He has long maintained that many of the world’s leaders fail to uphold the UN’s own constitution on territorial integrity with regards to Serbia. Buoyed by the 1999 NATO bombing marketing campaign towards Serbia, and widespread condemnation of Milosevic, Kosovo declared independence in 2008. For Serbia, the transfer resulted within the loss of 14% of its national territory.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attends the Carpathian Initiative Summit in Huta, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. Vucic made a one-day go to to Ukraine to attend the summit, hosted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. GOLL/BETAPHOTO/SIPA/Shutterstock
“These are double standards, duplicity that you cannot stand easily,” Vucic stated. There are about 100,000 ethnic Serbs left in Kosovo, which has a population of 1.6 million and is taken into account the cradle of Serbian historical past and the positioning of quite a few Eastern Orthodox monasteries. But they stay as second class residents, subject to violence and usually denied fundamental rights, in line with Vucic.
“The greatest problem of today is not a lack of rules or political principles, but the fact that they were not respected in the past or now,” Vucic stated in his remarks to the General Assembly on Wednesday. While the US and Israel are amongst dozens of nations that supported Kosovo’s independence, more than 100 nations don’t acknowledge it as an impartial nation.
President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia is pictured during his go to to New York for the UNGA on Thursday, September 24, 2026. Tamara Beckwith/NY Post
But issues could also be altering for Serbia, Vucic stated. “I don’t believe that the US will change its decision on recognizing or not recognizing Kosovo, but I believe they will show a bigger readiness to listen to the Serbs,” he stated.
Vucic stated the nation’s economic system is growing by 4.5% and its GDP climbed from $32 billion in 2012, when he took energy as first deputy prime minister, to $100 billion this yr.
“We’ve changed the face of the country by attracting everybody from the Chinese to the Americans as well as the Arab world,” he stated. “I see myself as a small leader. I just want to keep my country safe, secured and to enable it to progress well, to advance well, and that’s it.”
