Despite limited global influence, small nations hold an honest desire to see a strong and cooperative international system that operates on the basis of listening and understanding, said a diplomat from Slovenia.
As the international landscape undergoes significant transformations, Peter Grk, Secretary General of the Bled Strategic Forum at Slovenia's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, offered insights on how smaller countries can effectively navigate the global stage.
He made the comments in an interview on the sidelines of a roundtable discussion themed "Navigating the Future: Strategic Imperatives for Global Resilience" held Saturday in Beijing co-organized by the Bled Strategic Forum and the Chinese think tank "Center for China and Globalization".
"Our country is a small country. It's a country of two million people, so it's like three to four apartment buildings in Beijing," he jested.
"But while being small, can sometimes be a problem, but it can also be an advantage. The advantage being that our motives for a working global society are pure and honest. What we see right now in the global community is that a lot of global players are more or less confined in their own narrative, in their own framework of mind. And they are not trying to listen to the other side who may have differences, may have different views on challenges that we are facing," he said.
"This is what Slovenia is bringing to the table, we shouldn't shy away from this, we should engage. And this is why also we are here in China, because we want to engage, we want to listen, we want to understand. And from this understanding, from this listening, you can come to the solutions, or at least, you can ask the real questions, because sometimes even the questions are not right. So what we bring to the table is our capacity to listen and our capacity to actually try to find compromises in order for the global community to move forward," added the diplomat.
Small countries seek to resolve differences by listening, understanding: Slovenian diplomat
China is the "best possible partner" for Serbia to achieve its national goals, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in an interview prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to the country.
In the exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Belgrade on Tuesday, Vucic praised Xi as a humble man who keeps his word.
"We are doing a lot of preparations. We have many dreams. When you run the country you have big aims, high dreams. You need to put your new targets always. And if we can reach these new aims, new targets, new goals, the best possible partner for that has always been, and it will always be, People's Republic of China. And it's President Xi, because President Xi, he keeps his words. I see him as just a regular, humble, modest man, but which is not promising a lot, but when he promises something, then he fulfills that. I cannot tell you whether we had bigger preparations in our railroad sector or overall infrastructural sector or industrial sector, economy sector or tourism sector, whichever sector, or cultural sector, because there are thousands of things that we can and we should learn from our Chinese friends," he said.
Vucic said Serbia's preparations for Xi's visit would help ensure its success and deliver benefits to both nations.
"Let me say it's a big visit and now we are going to be, after today, we are going to be fully devoted to that visit, and I believe that we'll be able to deliver the very best results for the benefit and for the sake of Chinese people and Serbian people as well," he said.
The president also hailed the positive effects on bilateral trade between the two countries since a free trade agreement was signed in Oct 2023, making Serbia China's 29th global free trade partner.
"And there is one very important thing. The free trade agreement that we signed in Beijing. That's a big deal for us, because now we have reached 6.1 billion (U.S. dollars of) overall trade exchange between our two countries. And I believe that we're going to double or triple within 10 years, or even more than that, with this free trade agreement, this is very possible and I believe this will open new doors, new gates for better cooperation even in the future," he said.
Bilateral trade between China and Serbia soared from 596 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to 4.35 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In 2022, China became the largest source of direct investment for Serbia.
China best partner for Serbia to achieve national goals: Serbian president
