Belgrade 20.08.2021.

PUBLIC STATEMENT

Regarding Events In Afghanistan

Forum for Security and Democracy welcomes Serbia’s signing of the Statment on Afghanistan which calls on all sides in Afghanistan to respect and facilitate a safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals, including Serbian nationals.

FSD notes that the scenes we are witnessing on the streets of Kabul, as well as the recordings that are circulating on social media, do not represent a failure of NATO Alliance, which has achieved its military objectives in Afghanistan, but a failure of the civil authorities in Afghanistan which, in spite of the significant support provided by the Alliance, under the burden of corruption of unimaginable proportions, weren’t able to offer any resistance to less numerous and worse armed forces of the Taliban.

FSD warns that, in these exceptionally precarious and turbulent times, one should not presume that the events in Afghanistan will have a significant impact on the functioning of the Alliance in the Western Balkans, nor on the peace-keeping missions NATO is engaged in in the region.

FSD, finally, wishes to point out that the current events in Afghanistan, even though such attempts are already evident, cannot be interpreted as an opportunity for further destabilization of the Western Balkans, or something that brings into question the Euro-Atlantic future of Serbia.