Serbien

French President Emmanuel Macron starts a landmark visit to Serbia on August 29 during which he is expected to tackle Belgrade's progress toward integration into the European Union, the sale of French Rafale war aircraft to Belgrade, and cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence.

EU officials on August 20 again firmly rejected Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's claim that Western countries were behind recent protests against his government's lithium mining plans.

[…] The warning came after retired U.S. General Wesley Clark, the former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, recently cautioned that Russia, which maintains close ties with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, is using Belgrade as a proxy to sow discord in the region.

Serbia’s ruling nationalist party claimed victory in the capital Belgrade on Sunday (2 June) in a rerun of local elections, nearly six months after allegations of fraud in a previous poll sparked weeks of protests.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Belgrade on Tuesday (7 May) has raised eyebrows at a time when Serbia’s President Aleksander Vučić has continued to resist increasing pressure to align foreign policy with the West, in particular the EU. … Beijing has become Belgrade’s second-largest trading partner, and by 2021, Chinese imports into Serbia were worth €3.6 billion (up 26.9% in 2020), even though the EU still accounts for 60% of the country’s trade.

Serbian Prime Minister-designate Milos Vucevic announced on Tuesday that Aleksandar Vulin, the US-sanctioned, pro-Russian former head of Serbia’s Security Information Agency, will be one of the deputy prime ministers in his new cabinet.

Parliament Speaker of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, called local elections for councilors of city assemblies and municipal assemblies in the Republic of Serbia. 

Serbia and France have reached agreement on Belgrade buying 12 French-made Rafale fighter jets, President Aleksandar Vucic said, a move that will lead to a substantial modernization of the Western Balkan state's air force. … Serbia has stepped up defense cooperation with France in recent years.

Repeat elections for Belgrade set for June 2 after opposition and ruling parties fail to reach deal on holding local elections on same day as polls in capital.

Serbia's ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) said it will rerun the December 17 Belgrade municipal elections, a vote marred by widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities.