Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/268776 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
SWP Comment No. 8/2023
Publisher: 
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin
Abstract: 
Even though the six Western Balkan countries (WB6) have close political ties with the EU, their alignment with the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has increasingly come into focus since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The EU should take a differentiated view of the WB6's political and security cooperation with external actors such as Russia, China and Turkey. Within the WB6, the two "outliers" of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina's Republika Srpska use their foreign and security relations with Russia to achieve their own political goals. While Serbia seeks support for its Kosovo policy, Republika Srpska is trying to get backing for its separatist tendencies. The WB6 are not expected to end their cooperation with the aforementioned external actors in the near future. Nonetheless, in today's shifting geopolitical arena, the EU must set priorities that bind the WB6's outliers to the CFSP.
Subjects: 
Western Balkan
EU
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
Russia
China
Turkey
Republika Srpska
NATO
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Serbia
Kosovo
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Research Report

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