Development of China-Serbia Relationship in 2020 --An interview with Zoran Jovanovic, Chairman of the Serbia-BRICS Cooperation Organization

“The biggest international event in 2020 is undoubtedly the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Zoran Jovanovic, Chairman of the Serbia-BRICS Cooperation Organization, in an interview with Guangming Daily recently, “the COVID-19 virus is a common enemy of mankind. Serbia and China’s joint efforts to fight against the virus is a model of international friendship and cooperation.”

Jovanovic said that when China’s domestic situation was difficult, Serbia tried the best to provide relief supplies to help China, and people then in Serbia expressed their supports through the internet. When the pandemic broke out in Serbia, the Chinese government dispatched a team of medical experts to Serbia to provide help and donated a large number of medical supplies in the first place.

He recalled that during that time, China’s relief flights were the main focus of the Serbian media and people. From April to May, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in China was filled with relief materials provided by the Chinese government, enterprises, and Chinese people, which later were transported to Serbia via the China-Europe freight trains to Belgrade between May and October. Jovanovic said that China’s help was crucial for Serbia to restore people’s normal lives and production.

China actively shared prevention technologies and production lines with Serbia. Jovanovic told the reporter that China has donated two diagnostic laboratories to Serbia for mass screening of high-risk populations, effectively prevented further transmission. Moreover, China opened several mask production lines in Serbia to fulfill its domestic need. At last, not only Serbia achieved mask self-sufficiency, but they also became a large mask exporter in the world.

Jovanovic believes that these achievements have proved the deep and solid friendship between China and Serbia. Based on the two countries’ cooperation, Serbia’s economy was able to recover quickly. He is pleased to see Serbia’s domestic economic growth rate reached -1% in 2020. It is already the best result in Europe.

The pandemic has brought severe shocks to the world, but not to the cooperation between China and Serbia. Jovanovic said that in 2020 Huawei established its first innovation center in the Balkans and will conduct high-level research and development in Serbia. Serbia will continue to cooperate with Huawei. Such cooperation will greatly promote the development of Serbia’s communications and network technologies, especially the training and promotion of local talents.

Besides the cooperation in pandemic prevention, China and Serbia have also advanced in infrastructure construction. Jovanovic believes that the first high-speed railway in Serbia, the Serbia-Hungary Railway, is expected to open by the end of 2021. At the same time, the Belgrade ring road and the highway connecting Serbia and Croatia are all under construction as planned. The Kostolac Thermal Power Station and the hydropower station in the eastern part of Serbia will soon be able to provide electricity to Serbia to meet the energy needs of Serbia’s rapid development.

Serbia and China also have long-term cooperation in the field of production. The Serbian Smederevo Steel Plant and the Serbian Bor Copper Mine, which were acquired by two Chinese enterprises, have become Serbia’s first and second largest export companies. He smiled and said that Chinese companies had employed a large number of local laborers, therefore Serbia has basically solved the unemployment problem nationwide.

Jovanovic believes that the China-Serbia cooperation in the past year relied on the communication between two leaders. In October, President Vucic and the entire cabinet paid a visit to China to celebrate the Chinese National Day. In his New Year’s speech in 2021, President Vucic emphasized that Serbia will carry out all-rounded cooperation with China, and expressed again his gratitude to the Chinese government for its assistance to Serbia in the past year.

At the end of the interview, Jovanovic said that 2020 was a year full of challenges but also a fruitful year for China-Serbia cooperation. Recent public opinions poll shows that the Serbian people hold greater goodwill and trust towards China. Now, many of them are willing to get vaccines produced by China. They believe that a vaccine produced by a peaceful and safe country would be more reliable. Jovanovic once again emphasized that he believes that the cooperation between Serbia and China will move forward and reach a new level in the new year, and the friendship and mutual trust between the two peoples will last forever.

Contributed by Zhao Jiazheng, Guangming Daily reporter at Belgrade, Serbia

Translated by Ren Meiqi