Vulin arrives in Moscow

Moscow is hosting the plenary session of the 11th International Security Conference, and the gathering was addressed by Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev, followed by the guest of honour of the event, President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik, writes Russia Today Balkan. In addition to Dodik, the Head of the Serbian Security Information Agency (BIA), Aleksandar Vulin, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, also attended the meeting.

Milorad Dodik said that the Serbian people had become the first victim of the hegemony of Western factors and NATO.

“The first NATO aggression was carried out on Republika Srpska, then on Serbia, then on other countries,“ he recalled.

The bosnian Serb leader recalled that today all international politics is in accelerated dynamics, a multipolar order with new power structures is being established.

“The new challenge is the awakening of the ideology of Nazism and fascism as a weapon against Russia. Europe’s energy security is under threat because Europe is still dependent on Russian energy resources”, said the President of the Republika Srpska.

In addition to Serbia and the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity of Republika Srpska, the event in Moscow was also attended by the President of the Democratic Party of Serbs of North Macedonia, MEP Ivan Stoilković.

The conference addressed topics related to ensuring national, regional and global security.

And according to Russian Telegram channels, Dodik, after yesterday’s meeting with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, today addressed the plenary session of the 11th International Meeting of Senior Officials Responsible for Security Issues.

Delegations from 90 countries – Secretaries of Security Councils, National Security Advisers and Assistants to Presidents, heads of law enforcement agencies and special services – gathered in Podmoskovlye. Among the foreign guests of honour is BIA President Aleksandar Vulin, reports the Balkanskaya Svebnica news channel.

In his welcoming speech, the President of the Republic of Srpska stressed that international politics today is in an accelerated dynamic and that a multipolar world order with new power structures is being established before our eyes. Commenting on the recently launched “Defender Europe-23” exercises, Dodik noted that the real purpose of the manoeuvres is to further intimidate and subjugate the participating countries.

The Telegram channel recalls that this year the exercises are taking place in the training grounds of “Montenegro, Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo, with seven thousand military personnel from the countries of the Balkan region taking part alongside the Americans.” And all this, they add, under the pretext of “preparing to defend against Russian aggression”.

In a statement to RT Balkan, the former head of Serbian diplomacy, Zivadin Jovanovic, said that Serbia has a place at the Moscow conference.

“Serbia has a place at a meeting dedicated to security in Europe and the world at a time of global confrontation and constantly escalating tensions,” he said. “All this leaves no country in the world on the sidelines, especially not a country in the heart of Europe like Serbia. This deterioration of the security situation in Europe and in the world is very much reflected in Serbia’s international position and vital interests,” Jovanović explains.

Belgrade feels this most acutely, he notes, through the escalation of pressure related to the status of Kosovo, and that “we are constantly being asked to give up, de facto and de jure, part of our homeland”.

Jovanovič stresses that conferences are a form of multilateral diplomacy that can help find ways to calm conflicts.

He sees Serbia’s participation as striking a balance in the political dialogue with all relevant geopolitical factors.

“For a long time, Serbia’s dialogue took place only on the Belgrade-West line. This is not good at all for forming an objective picture of the whole situation and taking into account Serbia’s interests and how best to protect its interests”, Jovanović concludes.

“This is an opportunity for Serbia to expand its partners for political dialogue on all issues and to assert its interests and positions. “Leaving it to the West alone, i.e. to NATO and the EU, cannot be part of a balanced foreign policy and cannot be the best way to protect Serbia’s interests”, Jovanovic argues.

He adds that Serbia needs to identify with the global majority in the world, which is neither NATO nor the EU, and thus show its connection with current global trends leading to multipolarisation and the construction of a new, fairer European and global security order.

Retired General Mitar Kovač, who is the Director of the Eurasian Security Forum, told RT Balkan that this conference is taking place at a very difficult time for global security.

“It is very good that the Russian Federation is organising international meetings in response to everything America is doing with the collective West, which is trying to present its strategic orientations as international needs,” Kovac said.

Given the large number of participants, Kovač said it will be important to see what guidelines and conclusions they have reached and how they see themselves in the future processes of rebuilding the world.

He points out that Serbia’s representatives travelled to Moscow without public announcement, and other meetings with Western representatives are often announced a month in advance.

Kovač sees the lack of public announcement as a consequence of the constant Western pressure on Serbia.

“I think there is a fear in the government that the media publicity about our delegation going to Moscow and attending the conference could be a challenge or a trigger for new pressures and blackmail that are much bigger than they are now,” Kovač says.

Kovač sees Vulin’s departure for the conference as a signal to the Western power centres that Serbia has an alternative.

“People feel this alternative and have been pointing to it for a long time, as well as to the perniciousness of politicians’ statements that the European Union, and therefore the West, has no alternative. It is very difficult and wrong today to make such statements or to steer the country towards a centre of power that will exist unequivocally only as one of the centres in a multipolar world.

There are no strategic reasons for us to be part of the world that has brought us all the evils of the last 30 years, both in all the areas where Serbs live and in the attitude of the West towards Serbia and the issue of Kosovo,” Kovač concludes./Danas/