When the fear of COVID-19 finally lifts, we may find ourselves in a completely different world in many respects, including the foreign policy milieu. Relations between the Western Balkans and the EU, Russia and China may be redefined in this future world. How and to what extent isn’t entirely certain, though it seems that China is the biggest foreign policy winner.
Is it distasteful to question the political dimension of humanitarian action at a time when the second wave of the pandemic is raging? It seems that every mask is a respirator and that far-reaching assistance for the future recovery, in both health and economic terms, has its own foreign policy raison d’etre. However, our interlocutors view the indications of these changes and their impact on the Western Balkans in very different ways.