Serbia: World’s High Hopes for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Peace Initiatives
The Chinese leader will visit France, Serbia, and Hungary on his first trip to the Old Continent since the covid pandemic
On the occasion of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Serbia, scheduled for May 7-8 in Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic gave a long interview to China Central Television, in which he emphasized Beijing’s central role in the global peace process. The world is waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s peace initiatives that will “put an end to some wars,” Vucic said, without directly mentioning the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Frankly speaking,” Serbian President emphasized, “everyone in the world, whatever they say in the public space, everyone has high hopes for President Xi Jinping’s initiatives to bring peace in today’s world. I know it well because I socialize with everyone.” Vucic said Xi Jinping is “one of the rare people in the world who can really contribute to ending some wars and establishing long-term peace.”
“I invite everyone,” Vucic said, “to listen more and very carefully to what President Xi Jinping says, to his words, to compromise and finally reach reconciliation, because at the end of the day our common interests are peace and tranquility.”
Regarding bilateral relations between Serbia and China, Vucic said that in the next ten years, thanks to the recent signing of a free trade agreement between Serbia and China, it could grow two to three times and even more. “We signed a free trade agreement in Beijing, it’s very important for us. As the trade turnover between the two countries has reached 6.1 billion dollars, I am sure that in the next ten years the volume of bilateral trade can double, triple, or grow even more,” Vucic said.
Serbia is very grateful to China for the participation of the world’s second largest economy in the development of the Balkan country’s economy, which seeks to promote innovative and renewable technologies. “We cannot say anything negative about our economic and financial cooperation with China, both with the government and with Chinese private business. There have been thousands of attempts from outside to discredit our cooperation with China, to make us believe that Chinese loans will put the Serbian financial system in uncertainty. But, as you see, today in Europe, the public debt averages 89.5% of GDP, while in Serbia it is below 47 percent,” the Serbian president emphasized at the end.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s European trip, the first to the Old Continent since the covid pandemic, will begin on Sunday, May 5 with a visit to France, continue with a move to Serbia (May 7-8), and finally end in Hungary, where the Chinese leader is expected to visit on May 9-10.
