Foreign Leaders Gather in Serbia for President's Inauguration

Thousands of guests, including representatives of all states from the region, but also from the EU, the US, Russia and elsewhere, are expected to attend the formal inauguration in Belgrade on Friday of Aleksandar Vucic as Serbia's new President.

Media reports said the EU will be represented by the Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, while othere senior diplomats will include Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitryi Rogozin, and the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Hoyt Brian Yee.

The presidents of most Balkans states are also due to be present, Hungarian President Viktor Orban among them.

However, on June 21, Vucic indicated that the President of Albania - with whom ties are strained - Edi Rama, will not be present at the ceremony. "He sent me a lovely gift," Vucic told Serbian broadcaster RTS.

There will be no representative from majority-Albanian Kosovo, either. The former province of Serbia declared its independence in 2008 but that Belgrade refuses to recognize it as an independent state.

Some guests have already been welcomed to Belgrade, including the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whom Vucic took to dinner near the Belgrade Waterfront construction site.

Representatives of two rival military alliances, NATO and the Russian-led ODKB, will also be present on Friday.

Vucic was already sworn-in in parliament on May 31 after the former prime minister and head of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party won almost 55 per cent of the vote in the April 2 presidential election, securing a five-year term.

Serbia's former president, Tomislav Nikolic, also took over the presidential post in separate events, with both a...