Serbia turns on charm as Xi visits

Serbia yesterday rolled out the red carpet for President Xi Jinping on the second stage of a European tour aimed at deepening political and economic ties despite tensions over the war in Ukraine.

Xi arrived in the Serbian capital Tuesday evening following a state visit to France that saw sometimes robust exchanges with President Emmanuel Macron on trade and China's close ties to Russia despite the Ukraine war.

But the other two countries chosen for Xi's first trip to Europe since 2019 - with Hungary as the final stop after Serbia - are among the most sympathetic to Moscow in the continent.

China has poured billions into Serbia and neighboring Balkan countries, particularly into mining and manufacturing, and last year Beijing and Belgrade signed a free trade agreement.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic greeted Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on a red carpet outside the main government offices in Belgrade.

The Chinese leader was met by a gun salute before shaking hands with officials, including the prime minister and the National Bank of Serbia governor.

The two leaders waved from a balcony to several thousand people, some waving Chinese flags, as Vucic called Xi a "friend of Serbia."

"Such respect and love as he will find here in our Serbia, he will not find anywhere else," Vucic said. "We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity. Yes, Taiwan is China."

Beijing claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own and said it would not rule out using force to bring the island under Chinese control.

As the two leaders sat down for meetings, Xi told Vucic there was a "strong feeling of friendship between our two countries." They later appeared together to sign a joint declaration, with commercial promises including the purchase of new Chinese trains, new air links and increased Serbian imports.

Xi's visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of the 1999 US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three people.

"Do not forget that our Chinese friends were with us 25 years ago when this country was being demolished and bombed," Vucic told the crowds. "They paid a high price, they lost people only a few hundred meters from here on this very day."

The embassy was hit during a months-long, US-led NATO campaign targeting Serbian security forces who were at war with ethnic-Albanian insurgents in Kosovo. The US later apologized, saying outdated maps had led the pilot to strike the wrong target.

Xi wrote in the Serbian daily Politika that China would "never allow such tragic history to repeat itself."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE