Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic takes independent line on geopolitics
It’s difficult to place Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic on any one side of the geopolitical divide these days — and that may be just the way he likes it.The keen chess player, who keeps a board in his office in Belgrade, has forged strategic and rather complicated alliances around the world — a philosophy that guided Yugoslavia’s former longtime Communist leader Josip Broz Tito, who followed an independent international path, maintaining relationships with Western countries as well as rogue states amid his famous breakup with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin during the height of the Cold War.Today, Vucic, 56, has managed to maintain close ties to Israel while remaining relatively neutral on the war in Gaza.In an exclusive interview with The Post this week, he said that the day after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct.
7, 2023, he received a personal call from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanking him for fast-tracking critical military supplies and ammunition to Israel in a record three days at the urgent request of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, who called him on the day of the attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead.In New York City for the UN General Assembly this week, Vucic said he was meeting with everyone from European bureaucrats to African leaders and Middle Eastern heads of state.Despite his country’s close ties to Russia and China, he said he also had productive meetings with Trump administration officials, including US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
“I believe this is a unique opportunity to get closer to the States,” Vucic told The Post at the Trump International Hotel overlooking Central Park Thursday.“There is a big window of opportunity, especially regarding energy sector cooperation.”Still, it’s a tough geopolitical balancing act, he said, adding that his allies in Russia admonished him when he began speaking to the Trump administration.
“There is no side in the world that is not criticizing me,” he sa...