Serbia Vows to Adopt New NATO Plan Soon

The head of the Serbian delegation to the NATO assembly, Dragan Sormaz, has denied reports that adoption of a new Individual Partnership Action Plan, IPAP, with the Atlantic alliance has been delayed due to a lack of political will - and said the new plan involves cooperation at a higher level.

"The programme has been approved by both Serbia and NATO and it is expected that the Serbian government will soon put it on the agenda," Sormaz told BIRN.

He added that adoption of the second IPAP is proceeding faster than the first one when, according to him, Albania held it up for two years.

Serbia's parliament declared the country militarily neutral in 2007, shortly before the then province of Kosovo declared independence in February 2008 with the backing of the major Western powers.

But that has not stopped Serbia from being part of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme and concluding an IPAP with the alliance in 2015 for a period of two years.

A news website with a focus on the EU, European Western Balkans, on October 28 wrote that adoption of the new IPAP with NATO was being delayed by lack of political will.

In a reply to BIRN, a NATO official said that questions about procedures relating to Serbia's partnership plan should be addressed to the Serbian authorities.

But NATO also recalled its good cooperation with Serbia. "NATO has deepened its political dialogue and cooperation with Serbia on issues of common interest, with an important focus on support for democratic, institutional and defence reforms.  At the same time, NATO fully respects Serbia's neutrality," it said.

This practical cooperation, NATO added, had included Serbia hosting NATO's annual civil emergency and disaster response exercise in 2018. Serbia has...