"NATO to protect its neighbors from Serbia and Belgrade's intentions"

"NATO to protect its neighbors from Serbia and Belgrade's intentions"

"It is time for the EU and NATO to become realistic about Serbia and for Washington D.C. to send a clear signal that NATO will protect all of Serbia's neighbors from 'Belgrade intentions'", said the U.S. expert on Balkan issues, Daniel Serwer, as Koha reports.

"Brussels' position is that there is no membership in the EU for a country that nurtures territorial ambitions and does not respect the borders of its neighbors. It is time for Washington to give a clear signal that NATO will protect all of Serbia's neighbors from Belgrade's non-neighborly intentions," Serwer said.

Serwer points out that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, wants to unite all the Serbs in a single space, and reminds that the last time Serbia tried that, it ended in war, reports Kosovo online.

"Serbia has eight close neighbors, all of whom have Serb minorities, although Bulgaria has a smaller one. Six are NATO member states: Croatia, Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Romania. Two other neighbors have EU and NATO troops, committed to preserving territorial integrity - Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.

What happened last time when Serbia in the 1990s tried to expand its political scope and unite some of these minorities into one state: the war with Slovenia, the war with Croatia, the war with Bosnia, the war with Kosovo and the war with NATO. The aftermath: Serbs have left neighboring countries, and Serbia has not been given a single square centimeter of neighboring countries," Serwer concluded.