It can safely be assumed that NATO leaders and their media don’t care much about what the President of Serbia, Александар Вучић – Aleksandar Vučić, has to say about the NATO-Russia conflict and the war in Ukraine.
Not only do they think that they know everything better than anyone else, but they also have their own experience with Serbia since NATO violated its own defensive Treaty and bombed Kosovo out of Serbia – and blamed Serbia for everything that happened in then Yugoslavia. Serbia and the Serbs have been perceived as the odd man out among the elites of NATO and the EU, as someone you fundamentally look down upon.
But perhaps they – and the rest of us – should give Vučić a fair hearing on this particular issue? In my opinion, Vučić here says extremely important things based on analysis and an ability to see things from more than one perspective.
He states his views more succinctly than any other European leader I have heard over the last two years and comes across in a genuine, sincere, and thoughtful manner. No self-assured bravado as so many other leaders. He even talks – intelligently – about peace and points out that it has become a forgotten concept in times when all leaders talk only about more arms, war and winning.
He seems deeply frightened about what he sees and the conclusions he makes. His urgency, the underlying sense of powerlessness at the dangers he wants us to understand comes across, at least to me, as earnest and convincing – a product, as it seems, of both heart and brain that we otherwise do not encounter among today’s top European policy-makers.
Judge for yourself – the section about the war risks in Europe lasts from about 7 minutes to 30 minutes into the interview:
