DS: President of Serbia Negotiates Nuclear Projects with China Behind Closed Doors

The Democratic Party (DS) has assessed that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is leading the country into strategic agreements on nuclear energy with China without any public or expert debate, as reported by FoNet and the N1 portal

The DS statement notes that the discussions during Vučić’s recent visit to China were significantly focused on the development of nuclear energy with Chinese financing and technological support. The opposition party warns that such moves could have far-reaching consequences for Serbia’s energy, economic, and foreign policy position over the next 70 to 100 years.

“Nuclear energy is not a matter of political marketing or the personal diplomacy of a single man. Decisions that will determine Serbia’s development in the coming century must be made by society through institutions, expert debate, and full public accountability,” highlights the statement carried by N1. The DS points out that such decisions are being made under conditions of collapsed institutions and the complete exclusion of the public.

Editorial Commentary

While we do not genuinely know what was negotiated in China, we must admit that the Democratic Party’s statement, reported by N1, strikes the painful nerve of the nascent Serbian nuclear program—namely, the chronic lack of institutional transparency. As a portal that insists on strengthening domestic institutions, we warn that a nuclear program cannot be negotiated overnight or through ad-hoc bilateral visits, regardless of how financially tempting the offers from foreign partners might seem—assuming, of course, that such negotiations in China actually took place.

A nuclear power plant is a mega-capital project that redefines a nation’s sovereignty for the entire upcoming century—and it is now almost certain that the eventual construction of a nuclear plant in Serbia would be our largest infrastructure project of this century. Without a broad expert debate, a clear legal architecture, and societal consensus, any nuclear project in Serbia will remain politically vulnerable and perhaps even potentially unsafe. Ultimately, the technology can come from either the East or the West, but a safety culture and the infrastructure of sovereignty will either be built here, or they won’t be built at all.

Source: N1 / FoNet

S.A.