Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has announced that his upcoming visit to China will be „the most important of his political career". The statement is pure Vučić - a clear signal to the domestic audience that he is operating outside the standard European frame.

According to Belgrade, the visit will be a state and official one, lasting 5-6 days, and will cover talks on robotics, artificial intelligence, military-technical cooperation, economy, infrastructure and education reform. Chinese President Xi Jinping is also expected to receive the leaders of the US and Russia next month.

What does that mean for the Balkans? First - that China is no longer a „distant partner" for Serbia. It's a central player in several key sectors. Military-tech cooperation is already a reality (contracts for HQ-22 missile systems, for drones). The infrastructure on Serbia's corridors is largely financed by Chinese capital.

The second signal - Vučić simultaneously stated that „today we have what we need to go to war, Serbia is stronger than ever". These statements are not accidental - they mark Belgrade's geopolitical position. Not as „a European country in accession talks" - but as a regional power with Chinese-backed capabilities.

For Macedonia the question is straightforward: what are we doing? Skopje is already in NATO. It can't go with Chinese military tech, nor can it be an „equal partner" with China at the level of infrastructure contracts. What's left is discreet economic cooperation - and that has its limits.

Vučić speaks of education as „one of the most important topics". A strange statement from a man who's been dodging student protests across the country for months. But in the context of talks with China, education isn't what we understand by it in Skopje - it's investment in STEM personnel, technology centres, and joint research programmes.

Kosovo? Vučić repeated that Serbia is committed to a peaceful solution. But that's rhetoric without substance. The real moves - military, diplomatic, energy - point in the opposite direction.

The Balkans are watching another episode of the old geopolitical story. Serbia - with one foot in EU talks, the other in BRICS corridors. And a message to the neighbours: we are stronger. Bear that in mind.

What will Macedonia pull out of this? Depends on whether we're actually planning to pull anything out at all - or whether we'll just comment on the visit as a footnote in the news.