Seizing the Moment: Forging Lasting Partnerships in the Neighbourhood

Seizing the Moment: Forging Lasting Partnerships in the Neighbourhood, June 13, 2025,

Havel Stage, Hilton Prague Hotel, Globsec Forum, 2025

Seizing the Moment: Forging Lasting Partnerships in the Neighbourhood, Globsec Forum 2025, June 13, 2025. Photo by Svetluša Surová

A very lively conversation emerged in the panel titled “Seizing the Moment: Forging Lasting Partnerships in the Neighbourhood”, featuring President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić,  Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Former Chancellor & Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria Alexander Schallenberg and Former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic & former EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues Miroslav Lajčák.

The moderator, Kimberly Dozier, Global Affairs Analyst from CNN, opened the discussion by asking President Vučić what is holding Serbia back regarding its EU accession process. The president Vučić emphasized that there is still much work to be done, especially concerning the rule of law and, as he phrased it, “regional issues with Priština”. The moderator questioned if the problem is maybe the closeness of Serbia to Russia in light of its aggression against Ukraine. President Vučić opposed this claim, saying that Serbia “had a very principled position on the Ukrainian issue” while emphasizing support for the UN charter on debt and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. As well, he said that “the European path, it cannot be like whether you are pro-Russian or anti-Russian”. The moderator pointed out that Vladimir Kara-Murza said at this conference that the issue is “not pro or anti-Russia, it's pro or anti-Putin”.

“But the real issue for us, if I may define it as a bit different from the others, and it's about Kosovo. As you know, we are very much stuck to the UN charter and UN resolution 1244, which defines that as part of Serbia, and 22 out of 27 EU countries have already recognized Kosovo's independence, and five out of 27 did not.” – Aleksandar Vučić, President of the Republic of Serbia, Globsec Forum 2025, June 13, 2025

The same question of what is holding Armenia back was addressed to the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, alluding that Armenia also has “the Russian problem”. According to Prime Minister Pashinyan, they adopted a law about the start of the process of Armenia's accession to the European Union. But on the relations with Russia, he stated that they “have no task to cut relations with Russia,” and that they are pursuing a balanced foreign policy.

Miroslav Lajčák, Former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, was asked whether Slovakia is endorsing the membership of Armenia and Serbia in the EU, and the response was positive if the countries meet the accession criteria.

“What is really important is to be aware that there are no shortcuts, there are no discounts because if you want to be able to function in the community of European member states, you really have to meet the fulfil the criteria, but at the same time of course, we are all different and we on the EU side need to recognize the specificity of each country.” – Miroslav Lajčák, Former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Globsec Forum 2025, June 13, 2025

Moderator Dozier asked Lajčák if “the EU has a big enough tent to bring in countries that have a closer relationship with Moscow”. For Lajčák, this view is “a simplistic interpretation of the world around us because the world is not simple and we should not be making political conclusions based on tweets or media headlines”.

He raised a question about whether we are “a bit obsessed with Russia and with China here in our space". He explained that he spent one year as the president of the United Nations General Assembly and that the world looks very different from there.

“Then you read the media, and you know the reality, then you cannot stop wondering how different, how distant the media picture is from reality." – Miroslav Lajčák, Former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Globsec Forum 2025, June 13, 2025

Mister Lajčák continued with his exposé, “like it or not, Russia and China are realities and instead of competing in statements which are changing nothing,” he called leaders to step up and build relations with these countries. “Maybe we should rather compete in discussing how to deal with these countries, uh, how shall we build our relationship, so that you cannot ignore them. I mean they are both permanent members of the United Nations, and when I say that, I will already be labelled and not being anti-Russian or anti-Chinese enough, but we need to stop this madness for God's sake, because where is this is getting us to look at the world as it is, so probably it's time for some adults to step in the room and to try to be less extremist and more modern”. At the end Lajčák confirmed that Russia started aggression on Ukraine and that the war has to stop. In his opinion, there is “too much propaganda, too much ideology and too little common sense in all these in all these discourses”.

For Alexander Schallenberg, former Chancellor & Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria, enlargement is “the strongest geopolitical tool”.

President Vučić on Students' Protests

Moderator Dozier asked President Vučić about the students' protests, if he supports their democratic right to protest and their claims, as well as raising the issue of the deportation of the people who support them.

He claimed that they are “tackling that issue in a most proper way without any single intervention of our police, which is totally different compared to the most democratic countries, so-called most democratic countries in Europe”.  

Intervention of the MIRI delegate

Our President and Senior Researcher, Dr Svetluša Surová, made an intervention concerning what was said earlier in the panel by mister Lajčák about “obsession with Russia and China” asking the panellists if they think that democratic countries have responsibility to hold authoritarian and totalitarian regimes accountable for breaking international law not only concerning state territoriality and sovereignty but also for violating human rights of the citizens on their soil.

As well, Dr Surová reflected the rhetorical question where the “obsession with Russia and China” mentioned earlier by panellist has brought us: “To the war at the border country of Slovakia, to the loss of territory of this country, to the million people forced to leave, to thousands of killed people”.

She was not allowed to ask a question to President Vučić.

Watch the whole panel here.