The European Union (EU) has been imposing increasingly strict demands on Serbia without offering any progress towards membership in return. As a result, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin announced that Belgrade will explore the possibility of joining a non-Western group instead. Serbia applied to join the EU in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012. During this time, Brussels has upgraded its demand that Belgrade normalize relations with Kosovo into a de facto recognition of the breakaway province’s independence. The EU has failed to protect the rights of ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo and has tied Serbia’s accession to the bloc with severing relations with Moscow and imposing sanctions on Russia.
Vulin told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that Russian President Vladimir Putin has never forced Serbia to choose between Brussels and Moscow or threatened to cut ties if Belgrade begins EU accession talks. However, EU negotiators are telling Serbia that without breaking off relations with Russia, it will not join the EU. This raises questions about whether Serbia is considered a partner by the EU.
Serbia will be attending the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan later this month and exploring the possibility of joining the growing economic group as an alternative to the EU. Vulin stated that it would be irresponsible not to consider all possibilities, including membership in BRICS. He pointed out that if other countries find BRICS attractive, such as the United Arab Emirates or Türkiye, there is no reason why Serbia should not also explore this option.
Since its creation in 2001, BRICS has evolved from an acronym into an informal alliance that now rivals the US-led G7 bloc in terms of global GDP. It has its own development bank and has expanded from four members in 2006 – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – to include South Africa in 2011. This year, four more countries – Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates – officially joined the group, with Saudi Arabia currently finalizing its accession process. In September, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed that Türkiye had officially applied to join BRICS, becoming the first NATO state to do so.
Azerbaijan, Algeria, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Venezuela, Kazakhstan, Palestine, DR Congo, Gabon, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Senegal, and Bolivia are among the other nations that have expressed their desire to join BRICS.