President of Serbia and Montenegro visited Kyiv

Last week Serbia and Montenegro president Svetozar Marovic made his first visit to Ukraine. Kyiv has always treated its Balkan guests with special attention. Such a favored treatment is above all due to Ukrainian businesses’ considerable interest in cooperation with former Yugoslavian states. The uneasiness caused by military conflicts in the former Yugoslavia had for a long time paralyzed relations with Zagreb, Skopje, and Beograd.

Today the situation has changed dramatically. Western investors have started eyeing the prospective region with a great degree of attention. Last Monday the United States decided to renew a normal trade regime with Serbia and Montenegro after it suspended trade with the former Yugoslavia a decade ago. Although the Americans have not yet specified the level of economic relations they want to achieve with Beograd, Washington representatives claim that the effect of the recent decision will become visible within the next thirty days. Moreover, the influx of investment is complemented with the EU showing greater political interest in the Balkan states. At least the countries that have formed as a result of the collapse of Yugoslavia were lucky enough to receive a lot more signals from Brussels than Kyiv, despite the fact that Ukraine has contributed to peacekeeping efforts in some of these countries. Yet some believe that owing to the presence of Ukrainian peacekeepers in the Balkans, Kyiv can count on close cooperation with the Balkan states not only in the peacekeeping sphere.

Serbia and Montenegro is a quite young formation: a new commonwealth replaced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia only last February. In March, a Montenegrin Svetozar Marovic became its first president. After a meeting with his Serbian-Montenegrin counterpart last Tuesday, Leonid Kuchma stated that the relationship between Ukraine and Serbia and Montenegro should become closer and more pragmatic. One of the first results of the talks between the Ukrainian and Serbian-Montenegrin delegations was the signing of an international agreement on cooperation in the tourist sphere.