Kanin: Vucic Wants Only American Business Interests to Deal With Serbia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic wants a relationship with Washington shaped by American businessmen who have commercial interests in Serbia and the Balkans, according to David Kanin, a Johns Hopkins University lecturer who spoke to N1.

Kanin said Vucic was trying to create conditions in which people who do not care about the rule of law, media freedom, Kosovo, Ratko Mladic or other contentious issues would handle relations with the region. Businessmen pursuing deals, he said, would focus on their interests rather than geopolitical and human rights concerns.

He argued that no Western policy toward Serbia had brought Vucic closer to the West. Kanin said there was no clear consensus in the US Congress on Serbia, while lawmakers were concerned that individual business deals could ignore broader questions about human rights and regional stability.

Kanin also questioned whether the current US administration was seriously concerned about Kosovo, energy, regional stability or economic cooperation. “There's no question that neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch can be satisfied with everything that's come out of Serbia. But Trump certainly likes Vucic, and Trump is satisfied with anybody who likes him,” he said.

According to Kanin, Vucic has been told that US-Serbia relations require respect for democracy, the rule of law and media freedom, but has ignored that message. He added that Washington did not appear serious about the proposed sale of the majority Russian-owned Serbian Oil Industry, NIS. Kanin said Vucic could manipulate American officials, but did not possess disproportionate leverage over US policy, and that previous Western actions had failed to pull him closer to the West.

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There's no question that neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch can be satisfied with everything that's come out of Serbia. But Trump certainly likes Vucic, and Trump is satisfied with anybody who likes him.