Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro closed their airspace to a Russian plane that would have carried Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Serbia, causing the trip to be canceled.
Lavrov slammed the move by the three NATO nations. “An unthinkable thing has happened,” he said on Monday. “A sovereign state has been deprived of its right to conduct foreign policies. The international activities of Serbia on the Russian track have been blocked.”
The move is the latest example of NATO nations discouraging diplomacy with Moscow. While some NATO members have maintained dialogue with Moscow, including France, Germany, and Italy, many have followed the US and haven’t held high-level talks since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Serbia has tried to balance ties between NATO states and Russia. While seeking an EU membership, Belgrade has maintained its historically close ties with Moscow. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic expressed “dissatisfaction” over Lavrov’s plane being blocked and said Serbia “will preserve independence and autonomy in political decision-making.”
Lavrov said that by blocking his plane, Western nations show they don’t think Serbia has the right to choose to host him. “From the Western viewpoint, Serbia mustn’t have any choice, any freedom in choosing its partners,” he said.
Diplomacy is one of the primary arts of civilization. Preventing free passage of diplomats under peace and war is the opposite of civilized behavior.
I hope that the threat of closing the US Embassy in Russia will bring the uncivilized parties back to their senses.
And it will alienate the intelligentsia the world over. A thing expected of boors and knuckle draggers, … Donald Trump.
Seriously, what other countries in the world act this way? Even in the violence of the past times, the role of heralds and political negotiators was respected and it was a sign of complete degeneracy to harm such or prevent their passage.
I can see a case for it.
The role of “heralds and political negotiators” is to talk with their counterparts.
The point of their immunity and freedom to travel even during wartime was to facilitate those discussions.
Today, those discussions are as easy as pulling a smart phone out of a pocket or launching Zoom on a laptop.
The reason for the immunity/freedom no longer applies. It’s just an obsolete historical custom which it would be polite to observe, not a functional necessity.
Do you actually see a peace treaty being negotiated via smart phone?
First, obviously personal contact and negotiation are categorically different from anything as artificial as phone/zoom … there are also issues of privacy and security, what with the US abilities to spy on electronic communication.
But even if this was not strictly necessary, formalities matter. Politeness and standards of behavior matter and are, again, part of that diplomacy and civilized behavior so utterly lacking in the west today.
You’re exactly right. Wasn’t it invented by the Venetians in the 15 century on account of their Levantine trade? It evidences a cultural regression. Blinken, Sullivan, Haines, … these folks are seriously deficient. Walking out on the ongoing chess match is not possible in the modern world, signifies a kind of morbid isolationism. And guaranteed it won’t have the effect they’re likely intending, … will certainly shock & repulse the educated of Europe.
That’s how bullies act. Extremely childish and immature behaviour. Lsvrov can still communicate by video link.