Why is Serbia giving Xi Jinping the red carpet treatment?

Xi Jinping is getting the royal treatment in Serbia.

The Chinese premier’s visit to Europe – a rare one and his first since 2019 – saw him head to France on Monday before arriving in Serbia on Tuesday night.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and government officials welcomed Xi at the Belgrade airport, where he was greeted by a military guard of honour and folk dancers.

The two leaders will hold a meeting on Wednesday.

The Belgrade streets were decorated with Chinese flags and placards as thousands of police officers were deployed to secure Xi and his 400-member entourage, the highest-level visit by a foreign leader in years.

While some might be surprised that the leader of China has included Serbia on his European sojourn, a look at recent history shows that shouldn’t be the case.

Serbia is now seen as China’s most important partner in the Balkans

Let’s take a look at why Serbia is rolling out the red carpet for Xi.

According to RFERL.org, China and Serbia first began improving ties when Vucic’s SNS took power in 2012.

Relations were strengthened during Xi’s first visit to Belgrade in 2016 when the two countries signed a strategic partnership.

More importantly, China has given Serbia billions of dollars in infrastructure loans.

It runs mines and factories across the Balkan country.

Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic describes Xi as a ‘friend.’

Serbia is also Europe’s firmest supporter of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Both Serbia and Hungary are part of China’s a Belt and Road Initiative to modernise the railway between the countries’ capitals of Budapest and Belgrade and connect them to the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

The bulk of the project, which after numerous delays is expected to be completed in 2026, is financed through loans from Chinese banks — the kind of capital that Hungary and Serbia have been eager to utilise.

According to the AidData research lab at William & Mary, a public university in Virginia, Chinese lenders have issued loans worth more than $22 billion to nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe between 2000 and 2021.

Of that sum, $5.7 billion has gone to Serbia alone.

The bulk of the project, which after numerous delays is expected to be completed in 2026, is financed through loans from Chinese banks — the kind of capital that Hungary and Serbia have been eager to utilise.

China is also popular in Serbia.

RFERL.org quoted a recent poll as showing that two-third of respondents particularly the youth welcoming Chinese investment in their country.

The survey, published in October 2023 by the Institute for European Affairs, showed three out of four Serbians think China is a ‘friendly nation.’

Vucic has said he is “honoured” that Xi is visiting.

He said before the visit that Serbia would seek further Chinese investment, particularly when it comes to advanced technologies.

On a trip to China, Vucic last year said Serbia is “the only country in Europe that had never joined declarations criticising or attacking China on any issue.”

Both leaders insist on an ironclad partnership between their countries.

As per RFERL.org, the China’s People’s Daily has called the visit “a milestone in bilateral relations.”

“Serbia has demonstrated once again that China, not Russia, is its most important partner in the East at the moment, especially with Russian-Serbian ties under constant scrutiny because of Ukraine,” Vuk Vuksanovic, a senior researcher at the Belgrade Center for Security Policy, told RFE/RL.

Last year, Vucic signed 18 agreements with Xi in Beijing, including a free trade deal that should become operational in July.

According to BBC, Beijing claims it is Serbia’s biggest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Serbia.

China’s ambassador Li Ming says that Chinese firms provide 20,000 jobs in Serbia.

In 2023, China was Serbia’s second-largest trading partner after the EU with a total trade exchange of $6.1 billion and among its top five investors, according to the national investment agency.

This time, China and Serbia are likely to pen around 30 agreements, sources in Belgrade told Bloomberg.

BBC quoted Serbia’s infrastructure minister, Goran Vesic as saying much more infrastructure projects are in the offing.

“There is really a lot of room for co-operation with Chinese companies,” Vesic said.

‘Soaked in blood’

Xi’s visit also comes on the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of China’s embassy in which three Chinese journalists were killed.

On 7 May, 1999, 20 Chinese nationals were wounded in the NATO attack, which prompted outrage in China and an apology from then US president Bill Clinton.

The embassy was hit during a campaign against the then Yugoslavia to force late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to end a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

“The Chinese people appreciate the peace but will never allow that a historic tragedy repeats itself,” Xi said in an opinion article in the Serbian daily Politika on Tuesday.

“The friendship between China and Serbia which is soaked in blood that the two peoples spilled together has become a joint memory of the two peoples and will encourage both parties to make together huge steps forward,” Xi said.

The Guardian quoted Xi as vowing to “expand the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Serbia.

He also praised Vucic for “preserving national sovereignty” and “opposing the interference of any force in Serbian internal affairs.”

Observers say Xi’s choice of Serbia and Hungary is designed to pull closer two European countries that are pro-Russia and large recipients of Chinese investment.

Vedran Dzihic, a senior lecturer at the University of Vienna and senior researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, told RFERL.org, “China sees in Hungary and Serbia the two most important partners in Europe, a kind of door that opens up space to a wider European market and to some strategic investments.”

Serbia’s Western partners view the country as a Chinese hub at the gateway to the EU.

The countries are also growing closer when it comes to tourism.

According to CGTN, Serbia has become an ‘increasingly popular’ destination since it granted visa-free entry to Chinese tourists in 2017.

With inputs from agencies