Chinese President Xi Jinping was given a red carpet welcome when he arrived in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, Wednesday for talks with President Aleksandar Vucic.
“We are writing history today,” Vucic told Xi as they stood on the balcony of the presidential palace before a cheering crowd of several thousand people waving Chinese flags.
Ties between Belgrade and Beijing have deepened in recent years as China has poured billions of dollars into Serbia’s economy as part of its Belt and Road economic development program in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe, along with a free-trade agreement the two sides approved last year.
Xi arrived in Belgrade after a two-day visit to France, where he held talks with President Emmanuel Macron and European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on China’s trade imbalance with Europe and its tacit support of Russia in its war with Ukraine.
Xi’s visit to Serbia takes place on the 25th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s air campaign against Serbia’s violent crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, which was then an autonomous region within Serbia. Beijing has backed Belgrade’s position that Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, is still part of Serbia.
Vucic said Serbia supports China’s longstanding claim that Taiwan is a breakaway province of the mainland despite its self-governing status.
Later Wednesday, Xi will travel to Hungary, his closest European ally and a longtime thorn in the side of EU unity on Russia and China policy.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
