Turkey, Israel and the United Arab Emirates in the Balkans

Israel increased foreign policy in the Balkans with the primary goal to weaken EU stands on the Palestinian issues, pointed out BCSP Researcher Vuk Vuksanović. He said that maybe the biggest win for Israel happened last year with Washington agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, which implies that Belgrade will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while Israel will recognize Kosovo and, in return, Kosovo will open embassy in Jerusalem. Even though Biden won, Vuksanović thinks that Washington agreement will be fully implemented.

“Israel doesn’t have capacity to achieve a robust presence in the Balkans, but they are present as much as they need to be. Their presence in the region speaks to the new geopolitical reality – a growing interplay between the Balkans and the Middle East.”, Vuksanović pointed out.

Dimitar Bechev, a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna, said that Turkey was always present in the Balkans and that, in some way, is part of it. Even though there was some anti-western rhetoric, Bechev pointed out that Turkey always had tight security partnership with countries like Macedonia and Albania, and that change of foreign policies led to some new free trading agreements with countries like Bosnia and Serbia. Maybe Turkey is not the strongest influence, but a lot of connections in the west are in the place, Bechev said.

“Turkey has reinvented itself from a difficult partner in the West to a freestanding foreign policy player. It is an ambitious player.”, Bechev pointed out.

Speaking of relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the Balkans, Tena Prelec, a Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, pointed out that it changed a lot in the last decade. Prelec said that UAE started engaging with the Balkans through foreign aid, but pointed out that it was more led by the commercial elements instead of the charity. Prelec explained this change of foreign policy towards Balkans as a need for UAE to set foot in the market of EU candidate countries as a long term investment.

 “What’s in it for the Balkans? Very clearly, the Balkan countries do need the injections of capital. There are no quick deals in the Balkans, but there is a need for somebody with this long term engagement. This is of mutual benefit to the UAE.” Prelec said.

But a lot of this investments are state-level agreements, which allows Balkan governments not to make this deals transparent to the public, Prelec said.

“Who is behind the deals? What is the source of the money? Balkan states will say it’s a matter of national security, but maybe it’s really a matter of national security for citizens. Radical transparency is important. The EU & US should push for this.” Prelec pointed out.

Report from the event prepared by BCSP intern, Nikola Marković.