Serbia: BRICS Countries as Hope and Alternative to European Union

For Serbia, there is only one real alternative to the European Union. It is the BRICS group, which as of January 1, 2024, in addition to Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, also includes Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia. As Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin wrote in an article published on Monday, June 24, in the Serbian newspaper Politika, the BRICS countries “represent hope and opportunity.” According to him, “they don’t ask us for anything and can offer us even more than we ask for.”

Vulin emphasized that the purpose of his article “is not to compare or contrast” BRICS and the EU, “but to show with facts that Serbia has a choice, a real alternative,” primarily because “there is no place for Serbia in the EU, even if it gives up Kosovo.”

According to the Serbian deputy prime minister, “in order to participate in BRICS, there is no need to adopt laws written outside our country, no need to cede power to NGOs or raise the Ukrainian flag over the embassy.” Relations within the BRICS group are based on equality and mutual respect for national interests. “No need to legalize same-sex marriage or impose sanctions on anyone and leave the management of your country’s foreign policy to others,” the article concludes.

The article was published on the day the EU Council adopted the fourteenth package of restrictive measures against Russia. As Brussels said in a press release, they are “designed to hit high-value sectors of the Russian economy, such as energy, finance, etc., as well as trade, and make it more difficult to circumvent EU sanctions.” The package includes restrictive measures that particularly affect the energy sector and the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) “to ensure that EU capacity is not used to transship Russian LNG to third countries.”