The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Internal Affairs in Serbia, Milovan Drecun, in an interview for “RTS"has claimed that military cooperation between Croatia, Albania and Kosovo constitutes an "alliance" directed against Serbia and that it poses a direct threat to Belgrade."
These statements of his were published by a Serbian language media outlet.Informer.rs", which presented in the title tripartite cooperation as a "diabolical plan to surround Serbia".
What did Drecun say?
Drecun, assessed that the deepening of military cooperation between Zagreb, Tirana and Pristina should be seriously analyzed, and that this cooperation is no longer just a security risk, but is becoming a threat to Belgrade.
"When you build military threats, you talk about challenges, risks and threats. This overcomes the challenge, this overcomes the risk, this tripartite alliance becomes a threat," Drecun said.
He stressed that it is clear that this alliance is directed against Serbia.
"When two NATO members, who have the strongest framework for mutual military cooperation, which is NATO itself, create an additional sub-alliance with part of the territory of the internationally recognized state of Serbia, one can only conclude that this sub-alliance has an aggressive character and is directed against someone. In this case, against our country," he added. RTS.
What's wrong with this claim?
Drecun did not base these statements on facts. He did not mention why this is dangerous for Serbia, nor did he base it on the signed documents, or even the statements given by the signatories.
But, this is a continuation of a narrative that began the moment the agreement was formalized.
Hibrid.info has previously covered similar statements made by Serbian officials (see here).
facts
In Tirana, on March 18, 2025, Kosovo, Albania and Croatia formalized a joint statement on expanding cooperation in defense and security. The agreement was signed by the current acting Minister of Defense of Kosovo, Ejup Maqedonci, as well as by his counterparts, Pirro Vengu of Albania and Ivan Anušić of Croatia.
In the declaration signed by the Macedonian minister, the Albanian Vengu, and the Croatian Anušić, four points of cooperation were defined:
- Promoting defense capacities and cooperation for the relevant industry;
- Increasing interoperability through education, training and exercises;
- Combating hybrid threats and increasing resilience;
- Providing full support for Euro-Atlantic integration.
For more facts and other details, refer to the article published by hibrid.info (see here).
In conclusion, the return of the trilateral Kosovo-Albania-Croatia meeting, within the framework of the military cooperation agreement, has reinstated the baseless narrative of Serbian officials that this cooperation is oriented against Serbia.
These claims, repeated by senior officials in Belgrade, are not supported by facts or documents.
The agreement is cooperative in nature and aims to strengthen regional security, without posing a threat to any state.