Thewesternbalkans
Relations between United States and Serbia.
The US Department of State determines the American relations with Serbia as follow:
Serbia occupies a key strategic juncture in the Balkans at the social, political, and geographic crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe. The United States seeks to strengthen its relationship with Serbia by deepening cooperation based on mutual interest and respect. The United States wants Serbia to be part of a stable Balkan region, and they pursue this by supporting Serbia’s integration into European institutions, helping in the normalization of the Serbia’s relations with Kosovo, strengthening the rule of law, partnering on security issues, and promoting economic growth.
The United States continues to support Serbia’s the declared desire to join the EU. Serbia’s accession is conditioned on significant rule of law and economic reforms, as well as normalization of relations with Kosovo via the EU-facilitated Dialogue, launched in 2011 with strong U.S. backing. The United States supports the efforts of Serbia and Kosovo to fully implement Dialogues’ agreements made thus far and to help move both sides toward full normalization, cantered on mutual recognition. Normalization will benefit citizens of Kosovo and Serbia, contribute to regional stability, and enable both countries to realize their full potential and further integrate into the West.
Serbia’s Membership in International Organizations. Serbia and the United States belong to a number of the same international organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. In addition, Serbia is a member of the Council of Europe. Serbia is not yet a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), but has observer status in the organization. Serbia participates in NATO’s Partnership for Peace.
Security Partnership. The Ohio National Guard-led bilateral State Partnership Program is the cornerstone of the security relationship with Serbia. Throughout the 15-year partnership, Ohio and Serbia have worked together to enhance joint training opportunities, averaging about 20 events annually, held in either Serbia or Ohio, which have provided an effective platform for developing vibrant and close bilateral ties between the armed forces.
Serbia has also been an active participant in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program for more than a decade, and the United States has been a firm and consistent supporter of Serbia’s efforts to strengthen its relationship with NATO. The US value, in particular, Serbia’s contributions to UN and EU multilateral efforts aimed at providing medical capabilities, defeating ISIS, and combating international terrorism. The United States and Serbia have also partnered for more than ten years through the International Military Education and Training program to allow Serbian and American military officers and non-commissioned officers to train together and learn from each other in the American most prestigious military schools.
The United States values Serbia’s contributions to global peacekeeping efforts. The Foreign Military Financing and Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) programs have provided approximately $28 million in security assistance to Serbia for defense modernization and peacekeeping operations equipment and training since 2009.
Bilateral Economic Relations. As part of its EU accession process and cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 2015, Serbia has undertaken economic reforms and has seen meaningful short-term improvements. Serbia successfully completed a 30-month Policy Coordination Instrument with the IMF that began in mid-2018. With U.S. assistance, Serbia has implemented reforms to its labor law, construction permitting, and inspection oversight. These reforms have translated into significant improvements in Serbia’s rankings in the World Bank’s Doing Business report, in which the country now ranks 44th in the world in overall ease of doing business.
There is growing interest from potential U.S. investors in Serbia, in line with positive economic trends and with Serbia’s prospective EU accession. In September 2018, the United States and Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in infrastructure projects and in 2020 Serbia signed the Washington Commitments to promote economic normalization with Kosovo. To deliver the additional jobs and growth its citizens demand and to catch up with EU standards, Serbia must move forward with economic reforms to strengthen its private sector, reform its public administration, resolve state-owned enterprises, and improve the rule of law.
U.S. companies have invested around $4 billion in Serbia and employ more than 20,000 workers there. Among the leading U.S. investors in the country are NCR, Philip Morris, Molson Coors, Ball Packaging, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Cooper Tire, Ametek, and Van Drunen Farms. Many other leading U.S. firms, from a broad variety of industrial and service sectors, have a significant presence. There has been increased interest from U.S. information technology (IT) companies, with specific emphasis on opportunities in e-government, cloud computing, digitization, systems integration, and IT security. NCR, Microsoft, Oracle, FIS, and IBM all have significant IT-related operations in Serbia, along with a growing number of IT start-ups. Serbian IT professionals are highly sought after.
Trade relations. The United States restored Normal Trade Relations with Serbia in December 2003, providing improved access to the U.S. market for Serbia. In 2005, the U.S. government designated Serbia as a beneficiary of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), providing duty-free access to the U.S. market in various eligible categories. In 2021, Serbia’s exports to the United States were US$512.91 million, according to the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade. During the last 15 years the exports of Serbia to United States have increased at an annualized rate of 13.1%, from $82M in 2006 to $519M in 2021.
In 2019, Serbia exported services to United States worth $658M, with Computer and information services ($321M), Other business services ($182M), and Travel ($78.4M) being the largest in terms of value.
The GSP program expired in December 2020, and U.S. Congress has not renewed it yet as of July 2022.
In 2021, United States exported goods for $359M to Serbia. During the last 15 years the exports of United States to Serbia have increased at an annualized rate of 3.13%, from $226M in 2006 to $359M in 2021.
In 2021, United States did not export any services to Serbia.
U.S. Assistance to Serbia. U.S. foreign assistance supports Serbia in its integration into European institutions and builds U.S.-Serbian economic, security, and democracy cooperation. Robust programming strengthens the rule of law, fosters conditions for economic growth, increases government transparency, supports democratic political processes and civil participation, safeguards human rights, empowers civil society, promotes regional stability, energy independence, and fortifies independent media.
Since 1998, the United States has provided over $1.1 billion in assistance to Serbia to help it develop as a prosperous democracy, at peace with itself and its neighbors, and integrated into regional and Western institutions. U.S. defense cooperation strengthens the defense sector and the military cooperation, bolstering border security, aiding ongoing clearance of explosive remnants of war and the destruction of surplus ammunition, and helping local communities repair infrastructure. The U.S. Government also continues to provide support to strengthen the country’s asylum systems and to facilitate local integration of refugees and displaced persons from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Fiscal year 2020 assistance to Serbia totals approximately $31 million, including COVID supplemental funding.
The Western Balkans region is not of a strategic interest for USA. The US diplomacy has given has handed the leading role in the Euro-Atlantic integration of the region to EU. Three of the countries in the region are already members of NATO /Albania, RN Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo has the biggest NATO base in the region and in practice is under the security umbrella of NATO/ which was the main political goal of US. For Serbia and the Republic of Srbska the bombing of NATO in 1999 is still very vivid to expect any change in the direction of even showing an interest of starting negotiations for future membership in the Alliance, but at least Serbia is a part of Partnership for peace.
Comment: The above said doesn’t mean that US is not working hard on changing the positions of Serbia towards the war in Ukraine, which is by the way used by Vucic as a comparison to the “aggression” of the NATO countries against Serbia and the creation of the new state of Kosovo.
USA is also clearly asking for a change in the relations with Russia and China but for the moment unsuccessfully! The same is true on some internal policy matters, which are not a changing despite the personal pressure from the American ambassador in Belgrade. The best example for such a case is the removal of Aleksandar Vulin from the post of the Director of BIA, which was personally promised by Vucic to ambassador Hill months before he was actually removed.
One has to have in mind also that the American ambassador in Belgrade, Cristopher R. Hill, is an excellent diplomat with deep knowledge of the region and as we can confirm he has personal meetings with president Vucic every month and sometimes even more often but for now there is no punitive measures from Washington towards the Serbian President or the country as a whole!
