Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a 5-day visit to Europe. After the France tour, Jinping reached Serbia and Hungary, two small countries in Europe which are important for China. Eight years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid his first state visit to Serbia. The visit yielded positive results, after which Serbia became China's first comprehensive strategic ally in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Relations between China and Serbia have strengthened rapidly in the last eight years.
Serbia is also included in China's dream project Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This partnership can be of great benefit to many countries associated with the initiative. China and Serbia already share good relations, their relations are expected to deepen further after this visit. Despite pressure from the West and America, Serbia never reduced its friendship with China. Serbia has also taken advantage of this. After the visit of Serbian President Vucic to Beijing in 2023, the two countries signed a free trade agreement. Serbia is the first European country to sign such an agreement with China.
Rapidly growing trade between the two countries
Through some of its steps, Serbia proved to be a country in Europe which has the ability to take its own decisions without being under the pressure of the European Union and NATO. Recently, Serbia has also avoided openly opposing Russia in the Ukraine war. After the Free Trade Agreement, there has been excellent economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. The mutual trade between China and Serbia was 596 million dollars in 2016, which will reach close to 4.35 billion dollars in 2023.
On BRI, Chinese President Xi Jinping once said, “The development we are doing is not for China alone, but for all developing countries through our joint efforts.”
Remembered NATO attack
This visit of Xi Jinping is taking place on the 25th anniversary of the NATO attack on the Chinese ambassador in Serbia. Xi has raised many questions on NATO during this visit. On May 7, 1999, the Chinese Embassy in the capital was attacked by American jets in which three Chinese citizens were killed. According to Serbian outlet 'Politika', Xi said on Tuesday, “Twenty-five years ago today, NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, killing three Chinese journalists. This we can never forget. “The Chinese people appreciate peace, but we will never allow such a tragic history to be repeated.”
Xi's warm welcome
The deep friendship between the two countries can be gauged from the fact that when Chinese President Xi Jinping's plane entered Serbia's border, fighter jets of the Serbian Air Force arrived to escort him. Xi received a grand welcome on Serbian soil, apart from this, a different enthusiasm was seen during the meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Xi.
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