Is Serbia planning to destabilize neighbors Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina or even to launch a military attack?

Both Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani and her Bosnian counterpart Denis Becirovic have recently warned about such a scenario.

In a television interview in September, Osmani said that there is hope for the Western Balkans to join the EU and NATO, "but the precondition for this is to treat Serbia for what it is: a satellite state of Russia that is deepening its military, economic and political cooperation with Russia."

Becirovic's warning about Serbia's territorial inclinations, which he issued at the United Nations General Assembly in New York at the end of September, was even more insistent.

"Here, at the podium of the UN General Assembly, I want to publicly warn the global audience that, once again, the leadership of [the] Republic of Serbia is threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said.

Belgrade has for years been investing massively in its armed forces, buying modern weaponry such as French fighter jets and Russian attack helicopters, which Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has praised as "flying tanks."

It has also purchased Chinese air defense systems, which were flown from Beijing to Belgrade shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

There have also been reports that Serbia has acquired from Iran thousands of drones of the kind used by Russia to target Ukrainian cities on a daily basis.

The British business magazine The Economist wrote in 2021 that Belgrade's "shopping spree for weapons" was making its........

© Deutsche Welle