Norway

Friday

Daniel Korski

Serbia’s Nobel U-turn

From our UK edition

Yesterday, I blogged that Serbia's decision not to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony because of Chinese pressure was a shameful stance for the Balkan would-be EU member to take. Many others felt the same. Now, feeling the international pressure, it seems that Serbia's government has decided that the country's Ombudsman, Sasa Jankovic, will attend the event as special representative of Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic. A good outcome, and a sensible decision, which will hopefully be followed by a reprimand to Serbia's calculating Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremić, who originally decided that Serbia would not attend the ceremony.

Thursday

Daniel Korski

China’s new BFF: Serbia

From our UK edition

China is doing what it can do to scupper the forthcoming Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Their Foreign Ministry has now said that countries who decided to attend event would be showing disrespect to China: "We hope those countries that have received the invitation can tell right from wrong," the ministry's spokeswoman told journalists. Many of the world's human-rights abusers have been only too happy to oblige, including Pakistan, Iran and so on. They want to keep friendly with China and share Beijing's anti-democratic agenda. But, oddly enough, Serbia, a would-be EU member, is said to have chosen to boycott the Norwegian event. Keen to get Chinese financial assistance and help in its Kosovo policy, Belgrade's thinking is clear.