President Vucic talking about military alliance with Hungary: Bosnian Serb leader Dodik would join

Interestingly, the agreement about boosting military cooperation was signed by Hungarian defence minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky and his Serbian counterpart, but PM Orbán did not participate in the ceremony; only Serbia’s “strongman”, President Vucic, attended. However, the Serbs try to characterise that document as an “alliance” between the two countries; in reality, that paper is far from it. Even so, Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, against whom the Interpol may issue an international arrest warrant soon, would join the “alliance”.

Vucic: military alliance with Hungary possible

We wrote HERE that Hungary and Serbia agreed on boosting military cooperation in Belgrade earlier this week. Hungary’s defence minister highlighted that the agreement enables them to conduct frequent high-level consultations to ensure the region’s stability. Hungary and Serbia have the strongest bilateral defence and military ties among non-EU or NATO member states, and Hungary is helping to upgrade Serbia’s armed forces. Under the agreement signed on Tuesday, the two countries will organise 79 joint programmes in 2025, including flotilla training, an international exercise for volunteer reservists and marksmanship training, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

President Vucic, against whom protests involving never-before-seen masses of Serbian citizens have been held several times recently, said Serbia’s defence ties were the strongest with Hungary among its neighbours. However, PM Orbán did not feel it was right to participate in the ceremony. Only Vucic stood behind the two defence ministers while signing the cooperation agreement. The document clearly expresses that the partnership must not violate Hungary’s obligations as a NATO or EU member.

Anyway, the Serbs try to characterise the agreement as the first step towards entering into a bilateral military alliance. That is probably because a trilateral memorandum of defence was signed by Albania, Croatia and Kosovo. Vucic discussed the possibility of creating a military alliance or cooperation between the two countries in Belgrade.

Dodik would join the “military alliance” with police forces

Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, said on Tuesday that he would join that alliance with his police forces (the Bosnian Serb Republic does not have a military). Dodik flew to Moscow on Monday after Sarajevo requested an international arrest warrant against him from Interpol. We wrote that PM Orbán sent Hungarian special counter-terrorism forces (TEK). Allegedly, their task was to rescue Dodik from the country if things got out of control. As a result, the EUFOR ALTHEA mission would like to replace Hungarian forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina because they believe Budapest is no longer neutral. Based on the news, even the USA got angry when they learned about the Hungarian intervention.

This would not be the first time Orbán and his government intervened in a Western Balkans country to influence domestic politics. Before, they rescued North Macedonian PM Gruevski and supported Slovenian Janez Janša’s political campaign.

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