Brnabic: Serbia should not be "grass under fighting elephants"

MT KOPAONIK - When it comes to relations between big powers, Serbia should not be "the grass under fighting elephants," PM Ana Brnabic said on Wednesday, noting that Serbia was being targeted by objections over Chinese investments in the country even though China had invested more in Western Europe than it had in Serbia and the Western Balkans.

"We should not be the grass that suffers when elephants are fighting, and that is quite the position we have been in historically and we are in today," Brnabic said at the Kopaonik Business Forum when asked to comment on rising tensions between the US and China.

Serbia's economy is well-positioned in terms of the structure of investments, given that Germany is our chief economic partner and that German companies are employing the largest number of people here, while in the services sector, the cooperation is the highest with the US thanks to the IT industry, and the UK and Switzerland follow, Brnabic said.

On the other hand, Chinese companies are Serbia's top exporters, and all of this shows that Serbia has diversified risks when it comes to investments, she said.

"We will be trying to be open to the entire world and to have more and more investments and partners from around the world - that is the most responsible policy, but also the most difficult one," Brnabic said.

Currently, there is a political dilemma and Serbia is under pressure over the 5G networks issue and on whether Huawei is to be treated as a dependable partner, she said.

"If we look at Switzerland, that country has signed up to a strategic partnership with Huawei for a comprehensive digitalisation system in Switzerland. It would be unfair if we gave up on that due to geopolitics," Brnabic said.