How Serbia Manipulated the West for Energy Gains

The U.S.-Serbia energy deal exposes the West’s moral collapse, empowering a Russian-aligned autocracy while undermining democracy and stability in the Balkans.

Today, on September 18, 2024, while most of the world’s attention is focused elsewhere, a quiet but deeply troubling pact was signed in Washington D.C. The U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, José W. Fernandez, and Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric have officially inked an agreement to strengthen "strategic cooperation" in the field of energy. This deal, largely absent from U.S. media coverage but announced with just a whisper by Serbian news agency Tanjug, represents a seismic shift in the relationship between the West and a state that has repeatedly positioned itself as a thorn in the side of Europe’s security architecture. Serbia, a country deeply entwined with Russian interests, has somehow managed to charm the U.S. into signing a deal that not only undermines the West’s credibility but also betrays the core principles that the U.S. claims to uphold.

It’s hard to fathom how such a deal was ever allowed to take place. Serbia has refused to alig…