Aleksandar Vučić is going to China to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War, where he will talk with the presidents of China and Russia, while analysts warn that the departure comes at a sensitive moment for Serbia
Five and a half years ago, at the end of 2019, the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, spoke the Chinese language.
In a video message he posted on Instagram at the time in Chinese, he confirmed his departure to China in April of the following year. The corona virus pandemic followed, so there was no visit, but the presidents did Kine and Serbia then talked on the phone.
In the years that followed, Vučić made several official visits to this country, and now he is announcing a new trip.
The President of Serbia will be in China from September 2 to 4, where he will be invited by the President of that country Si Jinping attend the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the victory in The Second World War.
This time, Vučić did not announce it in Chinese, but the announcement came from the media relations office.
An opportunity for conversations on the sidelines of the meeting
During his visit to Beijing, Vučić will talk with the President of China, the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, as well as with other high-ranking Chinese officials and representatives of large companies, the statement added.
Dragoslav Rašeta, a researcher from the organization New Third Put, specialized in relations with China, sees this visit as another attempt for the President of Serbia to talk with other leaders on the sidelines of the meeting.
"For Serbia, this visit does not have too much significance, given that it is a date that is very specific to the history of China, not even to the extent of East or Southeast Asia, which we can see from the list of officials who will attend, and given that Serbia celebrates holidays related to the Second World War that are celebrated in Europe. So there is no excessive significance from that point of view, except for the opportunity for the president to meet other world leaders on the sidelines of this event, primarily Putin and Xi," he says for "Time" by Rachet.
As he adds, this event does not have an excessive political character for the domestic public, but that President Vučić can go and at the meeting try to re-invigorate his own image as a politician who has good relations with world leaders, without drawing too much condemnation from the West and, above all, the European Union.
"He (Vučić) is speaking primarily to his electorate, in the sense that he is trying to put a sign of equality between the fact that he has excellent relations with world leaders and that he is invited to an event like this, which therefore indicates that he is respected, which means that Serbia is also respected and vice versa," says Rasheta.
Traveling in the midst of a crisis
President Vučić is packing his bags for China in the middle of the political crisis that is happening in the country, and Rašeta thinks that it is not exactly the smartest decision.
"When there is such great and significant turmoil within the country, every year we can see countless cases of politicians canceling trips or returning from foreign visits precisely because of this, so that there would not be too many events while they are away. I don't think it's the smartest decision, but probably in this calculation to strengthen his rating, he opted for it," says Rasheta.
As he adds, this could also be an attempt to divert the topics from the happenings inside the country.
Why is Vučić going to China?
President Vučić announced recently that He is traveling to China in September. and a meeting with President Xi Jinping.
"From September 1 to 6, I will be in China for five days. Putin will probably be there, so maybe I will meet him. I hear that maybe Trump will also come. I am not sure. God knows how it will go. But they announced to me that there will be a special dinner on September 5," said Vučić ahead of the anniversary of the military action Storm.
Vučić then specified that on September 3 the President of China is organizing a dinner, but that he was told that some of the great world leaders will be hosting a dinner on September 5, and that he must stay until then.
Other announcements followed, which spoke of his hesitation to go to China, but still, a shorter visit has now been announced - from September 2 to 4.
Although there were previous hints that Vučić could travel to the city Tianjin, where the biggest summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was held so far (SCO), which gathered more than 20 heads of state, the President of Serbia was not among the guests.
"A visit to the Shanghai Organization and their summit would be the opposite of a visit to the parade in Beijing, because it is an extremely political organization, and the very goal of this last gathering was an attempt to normalize relations between India and China and, of course, relations between China and Russia. In this sense, Vučić must continue to try to balance between the Eastern allies and the European Union," Rašeta adds.
From the European Union and other Western officials, Rašeta does not expect significant criticism now, as they were when he was Vučić stayed in Moscow in May.
"After visiting Moscow, Vučić quickly traveled to Ukraine. Maybe this time too there will be some new trips, to create a balance", believes Rasheta.
Who goes to China's Victory Day parade?
On Wednesday, September 3, China is holding a military parade in the capital, Beijing, to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
At the parade, Chinese leader Xi Jinping will be surrounded by the leaders of some of the most severely sanctioned countries in the world - Russia, North Korea, Iran and Myanmar - and many other leaders of the global south, but there will be almost no Western leaders, writes the Guardian.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean President Kim Jong Un will attend the Victory Day parade on September 3, which will mark the end of World War II after the formal surrender of Japan. It will be the first time that the two leaders appear together in public, with Xi, writes the Guardian.
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian is also expected to attend Beijing while tens of thousands of soldiers will march through the Chinese capital.
Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who rarely travels abroad, will also attend, China's foreign ministry said.
Most Western leaders will skip the parade in Beijing, and the only Western heads of state or government attending events in Beijing are Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia.
Both were previously in Moscow at the Victory Parade in May.
The United Nations will be represented by Undersecretary Li Junhua, who previously served in various capacities in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was the Chinese ambassador to Italy, San Marino and Myanmar.
Beijing sees the parade as a show of military and diplomatic strength amid high-stakes trade talks with the Donald Trump administration.
What can we expect at the parade?
The highly choreographed event, one of China's largest in recent years, will feature state-of-the-art equipment such as fighter jets, anti-missile defense systems and hypersonic weapons - the results of a long-term modernization of the People's Liberation Army, which has been weighed down by corruption scandals and personnel purges, the Guardian writes.
China is expected to unveil a number of new weapons, including the improved DF-26 medium-range ballistic missile, dubbed the "Guam killer" by Chinese media for its ability to hit a US Pacific base with conventional or nuclear weapons.
On that day, tens of thousands of soldiers will parade in front of Xi Jinping in Tiananmen Square, and the guest of honor will be Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
What do foreign experts say?
Political analysts say the parade is designed to demonstrate Xi's influence over nations intent on reshaping the Western-led global order.
"Xi Jinping is trying to show that he is very strong, that he is still powerful and well-received in China," said Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, according to the Guardian.
"When Xi was just a regional leader, he looked up to Putin and saw the kind of leader he can learn from, and now he's a global leader. Having Kim by his side also highlights how Xi is now a global leader as well."
Lim Chuan-Tiong, a researcher at the Institute for Advanced Asian Studies at the University of Tokyo, said the primary purpose of the "temporary spectacle" was to bolster Xi's power and the CCP's strength.
"Commemorating the 80th anniversary...doesn't necessarily require a military parade," Chuan-Tiong said, the Guardian reports, recalling that China only started celebrating this holiday ten years ago.
"Most of the (leaders) attending, those invited, are not there to support China's commemoration of the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II," Lim said. "They are there to give face to China, to give face to Chinese leaders and to avoid damaging bilateral relations. Quite simply," writes the Guardian.
Source: Vreme/Guardian
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