Smajlovic: Blinken is polite towards Serbia, but the threats remain

The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, by congratulating the citizens of Serbia on Statehood Day yesterday, showed that he appreciated the delicacy of Serbia's position, but that did not diminish the threats facing Serbia due to Kosovo and Ukraine, a journalist Ljiljana Smajlovic, who has been an excellent connoisseur of international affairs for many years, said for Kosovo Online.

Smajlovic emphasized diplomatic courtesy in Blinken's address

"I don't see in Blinken a hint of any new nuance in Serbian-American relations. While the president of Serbia is conspicuously trying not to alienate the Western powers, the American secretary of state is trying not to make his life even more difficult with the rhetoric of "stick and carrot". He omits the allusion to the stick and sticks to the carrot. That diplomatic politeness respects the delicacy of Serbia's position and is not entirely irrelevant, but it does nothing to lessen the real threat of economic-political retaliation against Serbia over Kosovo and Ukraine if Serbia were to sabotage what is somewhat hypocritically still called a "dialogue" about Kosovo," Ljiljana Smajlovic says.