Serbia will host China’s Xi Jinping on the anniversary of the 1999 NATO bombing

On Tuesday, the 25th anniversary of the unintentional NATO bombing of China’s Embassy—which claimed the lives of three Chinese journalists—Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to arrive in Serbia. This will be his second destination on his first European tour in five years.

The 1999 NATO raid injured twenty Chinese nationals, causing anger in China and leading to then-US President Bill Clinton’s apologies.

During an effort to persuade the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic to stop his persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the embassy was attacked.

“In an opinion piece published in the daily Politika on Tuesday, Xi stated that while the Chinese people value the peace, they will never allow a historic tragedy to occur again.”

“The friendship between China and Serbia which is soaked in blood that the two peoples spilled together has become a joint memory of the two peoples and will encourage both parties to make together huge steps forward,” said Xi.

Chinese flags and placards adorned Belgrade’s streets, while thousands of police officers were stationed to protect Xi and his 400-person entourage.

Following his visit to France, where he was urged by President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen to guarantee more balanced trade with Europe and use his influence over Russia to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, Xi is now in Serbia.

Xi is anticipated to talk about potential new agreements and China’s multibillion dollar investment in Serbia.

In 2016, on his first visit to Belgrade, the two nations established a strategic alliance. Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, and Xi inked eighteen accords in Beijing last year, including a free trade pact that is set to go into effect in July.

According to the most recent statistics provided by the national investment agency, China was among the top five investors and was Serbia’s second-largest trading partner in 2023, behind the EU, with a total trade exchange of $6.1 billion.