Serbia courts US investors despite Trump hotel failure

{"text":[[{"start":7.5,"text":"The failure of a planned Trump-branded hotel in Belgrade has not damped Serbia’s appetite for more US investment, according to the country’s embattled leader."}],[{"start":17,"text":"The hotel project, backed by investors including Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was abandoned after mass protests and allegations that the Serbian government had issued illegal permits. "}],[{"start":28.55,"text":"President Aleksandar Vučić, who has withstood more than a year of protests against what critics describe as his increasingly autocratic and corrupt rule, told the FT he remained committed to attracting US investment."}],[{"start":41.95,"text":"“Americans are smart people . . . looking for a bigger influence,” he said. “We need to have a good relationship with the US and I look forward to starting that strategic dialogue.”"}],[{"start":51.35,"text":"Vučić said he found the second Trump presidency “quite a change” from his first term. “This time they are even more devoted to business-wise issues and very ready to bring financial [and] other types of investors to Serbia.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":64.55,"text":"He pitched his country’s energy sector — for a long time dominated by Russia — as an area prime for US investment. "}],[{"start":72.7,"text":"“Through the energy sector, [Americans] can have a true impact and true influence in the years and decades to come,” he said. He cited plans for a multibillion-dollar hydropower station on the Danube and a big data centre in south-western Serbia, along with renewable energy sources to cool it."}],[{"start":90.25,"text":"Washington has imposed sanctions on NIS, Serbia’s only oil refiner, because of its Russian ownership, although it has repeatedly granted temporary waivers to delay their implementation while Belgrade seeks a solution. "}],[{"start":103.45,"text":"NIS has said it concluded talks with Hungary’s MOL to take over the 56 per cent stake owned by Gazpromneft. Vučić said he was confident MOL would acquire the Russian stake, reducing Moscow’s influence over Serbia’s energy sector and the wider region."}],[{"start":120,"text":"He said that the US and Russia had worked out “something that is between them” and that Belgrade had received “sort of a friendly warning” that the sanctions waiver may not be renewed when it expires at the end of July. "}],[{"start":131.15,"text":"“The Americans are the only people who can resolve all the issues,” he added. "}],[{"start":135.4,"text":"The US Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment."}],[{"start":141.15,"text":"Vučić argued that his longstanding ties to Trump — as one of the few European leaders still in office from the president’s first term — and his ability to attract US investment would help him keep Serbia on a growth track and stay in power."}],[{"start":155.1,"text":"The opposition sees it differently. Savo Manojlović, leader of the opposition movement Kreni-Promeni, or Go-Change, said corruption allegations, including around the project awarded to Kushner, “amounted to a complete breakdown of the rule of law”."}],[{"start":170.25,"text":"Vučić, he said, “is not a leader who governs society effectively. He is the primary source of tensions and instability”."}],[{"start":178.45,"text":"The Trump hotel project was shelved last year after the Serbian government was accused of illegally approving construction on the site of the former defence ministry headquarters, bombed by US warplanes during Nato’s 1999 campaign against Serbia."}],[{"start":193.39999999999998,"text":"The controversy added to pressure on Vučić from a student-led protest movement that has become the biggest challenge to his 13 years in power. The demonstrations began after the collapse of a railway station built as part of a Chinese-backed rail project, which killed 16 people and fuelled allegations of entrenched government corruption."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":212.49999999999997,"text":"Despite the unrest, Vučić has shown no sign of relinquishing power. He has pledged to call snap parliamentary elections by the end of the year and to run for prime minister, a post he has held before that would allow him to circumvent presidential term limits."}],[{"start":227.54999999999998,"text":"In his interview, Vučić blamed the EU for stoking opposition to Trump investments in the region, including in Albania where a Kushner-linked project has sparked what has been dubbed the Flamingo Revolution."}],[{"start":239.79999999999998,"text":"Europeans were “very much supportive of all those who were against that kind of investment,” Vučić said. “I recognised that immediately. That’s why [Kushner] stopped and we stopped at an early stage. It came to another stage in Albania, and now they are in much bigger problems than we were.”"}],[{"start":256.4,"text":"The European Commission and MEPs have called on Albania, which like Serbia is aspiring to join the EU, to respect the bloc’s environmental and public tender rules when granting Kushner and other investors the right to develop near a nature reserve. The Commission declined to comment on the Trump Hotel project in Belgrade. “We welcome international engagement that supports the region’s stability, prosperity and European perspective,” it said. Albania would have to show compliance with environmental standards before it could finalise EU accession talks, the Commission added. "}],[{"start":289.65,"text":"Vučić described the Trump hotel episode as “a big failure of mine”, saying he had underestimated Europe’s determination to resist a greater US commercial presence in the region. "}],[{"start":300.04999999999995,"text":"“I didn’t realise how important it was to Europe to show the Americans who’s the real boss on the continent,” he said. The EU was “taking care of its own interests. Do you really believe they would be jubilant to see American investors taking their place here?”"}],[{"start":321.74999999999994,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784013725_2304.mp3"}