Bosnian Serb strongman claims election win, thanks Trump and Putin

Sarajevo (AFP) – The former president of Bosnia's Serb statelet, Milorad Dodik, said his party had retained power in the entity and its seat on the shared presidency, as preliminary results showed a drop in turnout for Bosnia's general elections.


Issued on: 04/10/2026 -  RFI

Voters fill out ballots as they vote in Bosnia and Herzegovina's general election at voting station in Laktasi, near Banja Luka © - / AFP

Dodik led the declarations for a dizzying number of posts to be decided in the general elections in a complex system that has held the partitioned Balkan country together since the 1995 peace deal.

The key race was for the tripartite presidency, split between Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks, and the Serb and Croat ethnic groups. Dodik's Serb nationalists ran on a platform of greater autonomy and secessionist rhetoric.

"If it had not been for Donald Trump's magnificent victory... we would probably be political corpses today," he told supporters in Banja Luka, in a speech that also thanked his close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"But now, thanks to the new environment, we are political winners," he added.

The 67-year-old was not on the ballot after being convicted of overstepping his powers and banned from the presidency for six years.

But he remains a central figure in the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska entity.

With 95 percent of the ballots counted, according to electoral officials, his candidate, Zeljka Cvijanovic, was firmly on track to retain her spot in the presidency.

Meanwhile, Bosniak presidential incumbent Denis Becirovic also claimed victory after results showed him leading a tighter race for his seat.

Former president of Republika Srpska and former member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency Milorad Dodik casts his ballot © - / AFP

"A freedom-loving, anti-fascist and civic Bosnia and Herzegovina is alive," Becirovic, from the Social Democrats party, told supporters in Sarajevo.

Bosnian Croat nationalist candidate Darijana Filipovic also claimed victory in her bid for the Croat presidential seat.

Dodik's party was also projected to retain power in the Serb entity's parliament and local presidency by a large margin.

The US-brokered Dayton agreement ended the 1992-1995 conflict but entrenched divisions that often paralyse decision-making.

It divided Bosnia into two semi-autonomous entities -- the Serb-run RS and a Muslim-Croat federation -- linked by a weak central government.
Low turnout

The major parties' repeated focus on war-era rhetoric of ethnic division frustrated some voters, who hoped for candidates to address economic concerns in one of Europe's poorest countries.

Economist Merima Cerim Karisik, voting in a northern Sarajevo suburb, told AFP she hoped for change and a turn away from the tired politics of the past.

"That what we have seen over the past 30 years will finally come to an end," she said.

There were no reports of major incidents at polling stations © - / AFP

Amela Hadzic, after casting her ballot at the same polling station, said it felt like the country had gone backwards recently.

"I hope people have seen that things cannot go on like this. I doubt there will be any major changes, but hopefully things will at least get better, however little," Hadzic said.

With the debut of biometric identification and the scanning of paper ballots at thousands of polling stations, authorities said technical issues had caused voting to be extended at some stations, but there were no reports of major incidents.

Turnout dropped nearly 10 percentage points from the last election in 2022, to around 42 percent, according to official figures.

- No progress on EU goals -

In the Muslim-Croat federation, Becirovic advocates a path toward the European Union and NATO.

But if Dodik's party returns to the presidency, it would almost certainly mean the political deadlock that has blocked the necessary reforms for years would remain.

After two decades in power, Dodik and his party have repeatedly clashed with the country's central authorities and vocally oppose EU membership.

Croat nationalist parties are also pushing for electoral reform. They want a greater say in choosing the Croat member of the presidency in the entity they share with the more numerous Bosniaks.

© 2026 AFP

Bosnian elections deliver strong results for country's main ethnic parties

SNSD leader Milorad Dodik celebrates the party's victories at national and entity level. / Milorad Dodik via XFacebook

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By IntelliNews October 4, 2026

Bosnia's main ethnic parties appeared to be strengthening their grip on power in the October 4 elections, preliminary results showed, potentially complicating the country's bid to join the European Union and prolonging a political deadlock that has frustrated voters and Western powers alike.

With 92.3% of polling stations processed, the Bosniak nationalist Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was the largest party in the race for the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking 19.89% of the vote, or 240,762 ballots, according to preliminary data from the Central Election Commission.

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), the dominant party among Bosnia's Serbs and led by Milorad Dodik, was second nationally with 16.44%, followed by the multi-ethnic Social Democratic Party (SDP) with 9.39%.

The coalition around the main Bosnian Croat party, HDZ BiH, was fourth with 8%, while a list led by Republika Srpska opposition politician Draško Stanivuković took 5.99%. The results are preliminary and votes are still being processed.

In the race for the three-member presidency, Denis Bećirović, representing the United for the State coalition, led with 38.03% for the Bosniak seat, ahead of SDA leader Bakir Izetbegović on 34.25%. Bećirović is a staunch advocate of Bosnia's EU and Nato integration.

SNSD candidate Željka Cvijanović had a strong lead for the Serb seat, with 55.6% of the vote after 80% of polling stations were processed. HDZ BiH candidate Darijana Filipović was leading for the Croat seat with 48.19%, convincingly ahead of rival candidates.

SNSD victories 

Dodik declared victory for his SNSD across all levels of government after the first preliminary results were released, also indicating a victory for the party's candidate for the presidency of Bosnia's Serb entity Republika Srpska.

"I declare victory at all levels. Thank you to everyone. This is a result similar to that of 20 years ago," Dodik said, reported Klix.ba.

He also linked the result to the political climate in the United States, saying that without Donald Trump's return to the White House, his party might have been in a weaker position.

In Republika Srpska, the Serb entity that makes up one of Bosnia's two autonomous regions, the SNSD was on 38.93% with nearly 87% of votes counted for the entity's parliament, and Dodik's son Igor Dodik topping the list. Stanivuković's Movement for a Safe Srpska was second on 14.19%, followed by SDS on 12.27%. The party's candidate Savo Minić is on track to secure the entity's presidency. 

Complex political system

Bosnia's complex political system was established under the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which ended the 1992-95 war and divided the country between the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak- and Croat-majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A weak central government and a three-member presidency link the two entities.

The arrangement has frequently produced political stalemate, with leaders from the two entities and the country's three main ethnic groups often unable to agree on decisions at the state level.

That paralysis has become a major obstacle to Bosnia's EU ambitions. The country received EU candidate status in December 2022 and the bloc agreed in 2024 to open accession negotiations. But formal talks have yet to begin because Bosnia has not completed key reforms, including measures to strengthen judicial oversight and anti-corruption legislation.

A stronger showing by the established ethnic parties could make it harder to overcome those divisions, particularly if the new parliament reproduces the confrontations that have repeatedly blocked state-level decisions.

The election also took place against a backdrop of competing foreign influence. The EU wants to bring Bosnia and other Western Balkan countries into the bloc, while Russia has maintained close ties with the leadership of Republika Srpska and supported its political autonomy. The United States remains a major player in Bosnia, both through its role in the Dayton peace settlement and its broader efforts to limit Russian influence.

Washington is also backing a proposed $1.5bn gas pipeline intended to connect Bosnia to Croatia and provide an alternative to Russian energy supplies. The project has become part of a wider contest over Bosnia's future energy orientation, with the EU raising concerns about the transparency of the selection of the US-linked investor.

Tech issues 

Election day was marked by some problems with the introduction of new voting technology. The election watchdog coalition Pod Lupom said it had recorded 46 serious violations by 9:30 a.m., including problems involving election materials, polling procedures and access for observers. Only 52.1% of polling stations opened at exactly 7 a.m., while another 37% opened within 15 minutes. The new technology was nevertheless operational before voting began at 99% of the polling stations observed, Pod Lupom said.

Turnout was 28.8% by 3 p.m., 8.12 percentage points below the level recorded at the same time in the 2022 elections, according to the election commission. The relatively low participation reflected the frustration of many voters with a political system that has changed little despite years of promises of reform.

 

Bosnia awaits for final general election results as preliminary count remains unclear

By Jeremiah Fisayo-Bambi with AP

Published on 04/10/2026 - EURONEWS

Around 3.4 million eligible voters in Bosnia headed to the polls to choose the three members of the country’s multi-ethnic presidency, lawmakers for the national Parliament, and heads of institutions for the country’s two entities.

Polls have now closed in Bosnia’s general election on Sunday, where preliminary results remain unclear, and the country is waiting for further updates in the coming hours to get a clearer picture of the outcome.

Some 3.4 million voters were eligible to choose the three members of the multi-ethnic presidency, national lawmakers, and leaders of the country's two entities: the Muslim-majority Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.

The complex system of institutions was created by the US-brokered 1995 peace agreement to manage divisions among Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats.

Early reports show voting was delayed at several polling places due to problems with new digital voting technology, which was introduced to address earlier concerns about vote tampering. Bosnia's Election Commission made this decision to prolonge the 7 p.m. voting cutoff at polling stations that experienced problems.

The election comes as many citizens in the multiethnic Balkan state face everyday problems, while some leading politicians stoke the war-era tensions that have kept the country divided since the 1992-95 conflict.

By 3 p.m. around 27% of voters had cast their ballots, according to the commission, a decrease from 35% at the same time during the last national election.

New election security measures

For the first time, authorities were using electronic voter identification and ballot scanning to curb the irregularities and organised manipulation that undermined confidence in earlier elections.

Most of the 75 parties running are organised along ethnic lines. The Bosniak nationalist Party of Democratic Action has campaigned on keeping Bosnia united against Serb separatism, while many Bosnian Croats back ethnic parties such as the local branch of Croatia's ruling Croatian Democratic Union.

Izetbegovic, who was beaten by Becirovic in 2022, is seeking a third term as president of the centre-right SDA, the largest Bosniak party in the nation.

A woman places her ballot into an electronic ballot box during the general election in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) AP Photo

Many disillusioned citizens say politicians use nationalism to avoid tackling real problems like low living standards and the exodus of young people. Mostar voter Ivan Silic said nothing has improved since he first voted and that politicians live well while everyone else's situation stays the same.

Dodik looms large despite not being on the ballot

Despite not being on the ballot, the campaign has been dominated by Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russian, separatist former president of Republika Srpska. Dodik is banned from public office after being convicted of defying the international envoy who oversees the peace agreement.

Fresh from meeting Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Dodik leads a party, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, that is likely to win in Republika Srpska.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, right, and Prime Minister of Republika Srpska Savo Minic enter a hall for the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. AP Photo

At a final rally Friday in Banja Luka, attended by Russia's ambassador, Igor Khalabukov, Dodik declared Bosnia is "dead" and "an impossible country". "It doesn't make any sense," he stressed.

Off the ballot for the first time in almost 30 years, he is still in command and is present across the country's media, says Dragan Bursac, an analyst. In Bursac's view, the ban is not working, and Dodik is exploiting it.

Ethnic tensions continue to rise

Bosnia has been peaceful in recent years, but its politicians have kept ethnic divisions alive. Bosnian Serb leaders such as Dodik have pushed for their entity to break away, raising Western fears of renewed instability.

The Balkan nation remains one of Europe's poorest countries, still recovering from a war that began after it declared independence from Serb-led Yugoslavia and ethnic Serbs took up arms to carve out their own state. That conflict killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions.

The country is formally seeking European Union membership, but progress has stalled despite EU efforts to push its leaders toward reform.

Major powers continue to influence socio-economic and political life in the small Balkan nation. Russia is holding down the EU's efforts to expand its membership throughout the Balkans, including Bosnia, while continuing to back the Republika Srpska.

While a $1.5 billion pipeline project to import US liquefied natural gas is being pushed by a corporation with ties to the Trump administration as part of the US's efforts to gain influence.

Relate

And recently, wartime wounds were reopened by public tributes in Serbia and among Bosnian Serbs to Ratko Mladic, the wartime army commander who died in late August while serving a life sentence for genocide and other war crimes.

Bosnian Serbs regard him as a hero, despite his UN court conviction over the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

Senior Bosnian Serb officials attended his funeral in Belgrade, drawing sharp EU criticism and angering Bosniak politicians.

India’s Kerala Is Emerging As A Global Tourism Destination – OpEd


Traditional houseboats in Kerala, India. Photo Credit: Mohit Khare, Pexels

September 28, 2026
By Nikola Mikovic


Key Takeaways:

Kerala still leans on domestic visitors (25 million-plus in 2025 vs. ~822,000 foreign arrivals, up more than 11% year on year) and wants longer, higher-spend international trips from the UK, Europe, the U.S., Australia, and newer East and Southeast Asian markets.

Tourism Minister P.C. Vishnunadh, speaking around Kochi’s Sept. 24–27 Kerala Travel Mart, frames the pitch as experience, community value, and sustainability—beaches, backwaters, Western Ghats, culture, food, Ayurveda—not just postcard marketing.

Four international airports (Cochin solar-powered since 2015) need more long-haul flights; India-wide, WTTC put foreign spending at about 14% of tourism spend in 2025, so Kerala’s test is converting mart interest into seats, nights, and jobs.

For centuries, the southwestern Indian state of Kerala has maintained commercial, cultural and social links with countries across the Arabian Sea and the wider Indian Ocean. Today, those connections are taking on a new dimension as Kerala seeks to attract more international visitors and establish itself as a globally recognized tourism destination.

The state, however, remains heavily dependent on domestic tourism. In 2025, Kerala recorded more than 25 million domestic arrivals, compared with about 822,000 foreign tourist visits. Yet foreign arrivals grew by more than 11 percent from the previous year, suggesting that international tourism is becoming an increasingly important part of the state’s plans.

Location of Kerala in India. Source: Wikipedia Commons.


Kerala’s tourism authorities are therefore actively seeking to diversify the state’s international visitor base, with the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia remaining important markets while new opportunities are being explored in East and Southeast Asia.

“Our priorities are to increase international arrivals, improve the quality and length of stay, increase tourist spending, diversify tourism products and destinations, and create greater opportunities for employment, investment and local economic participation,” P.C. Vishnunadh, the minister for culture, cinema and tourism in the government of Kerala told this author in an interview.

As he emphasized, the larger shift is from marketing Kerala simply as a place to visit to positioning the southwest Indian state as a destination to experience, connect with and return to.


“We want Kerala to be recognized globally for the quality of its experiences, the value it creates for visitors and local communities, and its responsible and sustainable model of tourism,” Vishnunadh stressed.

Kerala once sent spices across the Arabian Sea and received merchants, ideas and cultures in return. Its people later travelled in large numbers to the Gulf and other parts of the world in search of work and opportunity. Now the state is trying to encourage the world to come to Kerala to experience its beaches, backwaters, mountains, culture, cuisine, as well as Ayurveda, India’s traditional system of medicine and wellness.

From September 24-27, the state’s commercial capital, Kochi, attracted hundreds of international and Indian tourism professionals to the Kerala Travel Mart, India’s largest business-to-business tourism event. It was an opportunity to showcase Kerala’s tourism offerings to international travel buyers, and also to demonstrate the state’s broader ambitions to strengthen its presence in global tourism markets.

As Kerala’s monsoon season draws to a close, international visitors are expected to arrive in greater numbers, staying in luxurious resorts, heritage properties and boutique hotels. From the beaches along its 590-kilometre coastline to the mountains and forests of the Western Ghats, Kerala offers a striking diversity of landscapes, experiences and cultural traditions.

But a diverse tourism offering is only part of the equation. For Kerala to attract more international visitors, good air connectivity will be equally important, particularly as the state seeks to expand its presence in distant markets such as Europe and North America.

“We are keen to work closely with airlines, airport authorities and the Union Government to strengthen international air connectivity from Kerala. We are also exploring opportunities for more direct and convenient connections to key European destinations, as our larger objective is to make Kerala more accessible to long-haul markets, particularly Europe, North America and other high-value international tourism markets,” Vishnunadh said.


Kerala has four operational international airports, with Cochin International Airport becoming the world’s first fully solar-powered airport in 2015. But its appeal extends beyond its infrastructure and natural attractions.

The state has long occupied an unusual position within India. It has built a reputation for relatively strong social indicators, high literacy and comparatively developed public services, while also maintaining a cultural landscape shaped by Hindu, Muslim and Christian traditions and centuries of interaction with foreign traders and communities.

“We want to build a high-value, sustainable and globally competitive tourism economy,” Vishnunadh stressed.

But this is not an ambition unique to Kerala. India more broadly is seeking to expand its international tourism sector and attract more visitors from abroad. Presently, international visitors remain a relatively small part of the country’s overall tourism expenditure. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that international visitor spending accounted for only about 14 percent of India’s total tourism spending in 2025. There is therefore significant scope for India to attract more foreign travelers and increase their contribution to the tourism economy.

Kerala is hoping to capture part of that opportunity, but the next challenge will be turning interest into actual growth. That means bringing in more airlines, reaching new markets and convincing international travelers to stay longer and spend more in Kerala, widely known as “God’s Own Country.”

For a state whose history has long been shaped by its connections with the outside world, attracting more of the world to Kerala could be the next chapter in that story.

About Nikola Mikovic
Nikola Mikovic is a freelance journalist based in Serbia, reporting on geopolitics, energy, economics, tourism, and regional developments across Eurasia. His work has been featured in leading international outlets, including the South China Morning Post, CGTN, The Times of Central Asia, the Lowy Institute, Diplomatic Courier, and Byline Times, among others.

‘Gobsmackingly bananas’ El Niño shatters global records

NASA / VIIRS data courtesy of NOAA.

Frida Garza,

 Grist

and
Kate Yoder

September 27, 2026 | 08:24AM ET

By now, you’ve seen the headlines, and there’s more of them every day: It’s “jaw-dropping.” It’s poised to make global warming worse. California has just declared a statewide state of emergency. This year’s El Niño — a shift in Pacific Ocean trade winds that scrambles global weather patterns — has been hotly discussed as one of the strongest on record, and one that could bring about potentially disastrous consequences. One study projects that it may cause as many as 451,000 heat-related deaths around the world by February.

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here.

The current El Niño has also been given an array of eye-catching descriptors. When Jeffrey Shaman, a climatologist at Columbia Climate School, heard the phrase “super El Niño” for the first time earlier this year, he said, “I literally googled it.” The phrase isn’t officially used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the World Meteorological Organization. But he still sees value in the label as a way of communicating the significance of this year’s likely unprecedented El Niño to the general public.


“It’s colloquial, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all,” Shaman said.

By all accounts, this year’s El Niño will also give the world a glimpse into a future of unabated warming due to the burning of fossil fuels — and an opportunity to change course before the worst effects occur.

Back up — what is El Niño?

El Niño is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon that begins when sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean rise above average. Although it doesn’t occur on a set timeframe, it tends to happen every two to seven years. Typically, trade winds blow east to west across the Pacific and push warm ocean water along the equator toward East Asia. But during an El Niño year, these winds slow down and sometimes reverse. The warm water that typically gets dragged westward sloshes back, now toward the western coast of the Americas.

This change in sea surface temperatures has ramifications far beyond the Pacific. It drives extreme weather across the globe, threatening crop harvests in several key agricultural regions, as well as worsening both drought and severe rainfall.


The impact of climate change on El Niño is complex. Research has shown that global warming has led to more frequent El Niños. But El Niño events are also associated with jumps in global mean surface temperature — or the average temperature of the Earth itself, a measure commonly used as a stand-in for climate change. It’s not easy to delineate how much additional warming is from El Niño and how much is from climate change, but what is clear is that the combination will be devastating. This year may turn out to be the hottest year on record, and 2027 may be even hotter. It could be a preview of the typical levels of warming the world might see by 2040, according to one high-end estimate.

Scientists don’t know exactly how that combination will play out. “It’s going to be a very, very strong event occurring against a backdrop of very rapid global warming,” said Christopher Callahan, a climate scientist at Indiana University. “I think we’re going to, unfortunately, learn a lot this year,” he said.
What makes this El Niño ‘super’?


There are many ways to measure the strength of an El Niño event. (NOAA keeps track of several of them here.) Some measure the sea surface temperature in different regions of the Pacific; there’s also indexes that take into account atmospheric changes as well as oceanic ones. The one used most often today is called the “Niño 3.4 anomaly.” In the U.S., in order for NOAA to declare an El Niño event, warming in this region of the Pacific must be 0.5 degrees Celsius above normal. If warming is 1 degree above normal, that gets labeled as “moderate”; if it’s 1.5 degrees above normal, then it counts as “strong”; and if it’s 2 degrees above normal, then it’s considered “very strong.”

The term “super” is broadly considered to be synonymous with “very strong.” However, a recent analysis of sea surface temperatures by Carbon Brief, released this week, shows that as of Monday, warming in the Niño 3.4 region reached 3.11 degrees.

That number is significant, because it means this year’s El Niño has already broken the record for the strongest El Niño, which peaked in November 2015.

El Niño events typically peak around December or January. (Fun fact: The phenomenon was named El Niño by South American fishers who noticed its timing and associated the warmer temperatures with the story of baby Jesus.) It’s possible that sea surface temperatures in the Pacific will drop over the next few months. However, that looks increasingly unlikely. Sea surface temperatures in June, July, and August were the warmest we’ve ever seen, and forecast models show that there is now a 90 percent chance that this El Niño will stay “very strong” through the end of the year.


“I was a little bit skeptical earlier this year of some of the more dire predictions,” said Callahan. But as more data kept coming in, he said, it became clear “that we’re going to see a generationally strong event this year.”
Where did the phrase ‘super El Niño’ come from?

While it might sound like a phrase an overzealous journalist invented, “super El Niño” was actually coined by scientists — a fact that surprised Jovana Vurdelja, an ecolinguistics researcher in Serbia. “I really thought it was just media sensationalism,” she said. The phrase first appeared in a 2003 paper looking at how a strong El Niño can be followed by a strong La Niña, its cooler counterpart, according to Vurdelja.

“Super El Niño” has taken off in English-speaking countries but also across Europe, where it’s been adopted by speakers of Serbian, Norwegian, Italian, German, French, Croatian, and other languages.


When extraordinary weather is on the way, people reach for amped-up language to communicate the scale of the hazard. But finding the right word to match that danger is like trying to find the right shoe size, Vurdelja said. The language can be too small, minimizing the threat, or it can be too big — exaggerations that can lead to nihilism or desensitization. “It’s extremely important that the word communicates the seriousness, the magnitude, the severity of the event itself,” Vurdelja said. She thinks “super El Niño” hits the mark, since it’s been embraced by scientists and the media alike.
What comes after ‘super El Niño’?

If super El Niños become a common occurrence — that is, if warming in the Pacific regularly reaches 3 or more degrees above normal — the language we use to describe these events may need to evolve. Some scientists have already suggested that the phrase du jour doesn’t go far enough: “This is going to be so far beyond a super El Niño, if the models are right, that we sort of need a new term for it,” the climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said in the podcast Shift Key last month.

We’ll “need stronger words, stronger language, and that’s when we get into this spiral,” Vurdelja said. That’s how you end up with scientists reaching for words like “mind-bogglingly crazy” and “gobsmackingly bananas” (a phrase Hausfather coined) to describe record heat. The term “Godzilla” El Niño, now taking off in news headlines, was coined by NASA climate scientist Bill Patzert in 2015.


The official categories for what counts as a strong El Niño used to make sense. “We hadn’t gotten above 2 degrees Celsius except occasionally,” Shaman said, and so the language experts initially settled on “seemed like a reasonable place to be.”

Whatever you call it, the most important thing will be planning for the potential impacts of this very strong El Niño — to understand what it means for food production, hydropower generation, public health, and extreme weather in the coming year. Given California’s recent state of emergency declaration, for now, maybe “super” will do just fine.

This article originally appeared in Grist.

Canada and EU: A look at the bloc's special relationships

Matt Pearson

09/18/2026

DW

Though Canada may be some distance from Europe geographically, closer political ties are in the cards. With talk of an associate membership, DW takes a look at other arrangements the EU has with particular countries.

Mark Carney sees Canada and the EU as a natural partnership

Image: Yves Herman/REUTERS

Canada and the EU "see the world with the same eyes," according to European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

And the feeling appears mutual.

"Our commitment to the rule of law, and our unyielding defense of human dignity, individual freedom and democracy share the same deep roots, the same unwavering dedication," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said.

In that spirit, and with both parties grasping for an effective way to deal with Donald Trump and his tariffs, von der Leyen floated the idea that Canada could become the European Union's first associate member on Thursday.

Given the concept of associate membership does not yet exist, it's difficult to determine exactly what that would mean. Germany proposed a similar arrangement for Ukraine earlier this year, only for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reject the idea on the grounds that the country wants full membership.

Though not officially recognized as associates, there are plenty of countries that have strong ties or agreements with the bloc. DW looks at some of them and how they work.
EFTA and single market access — Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland

Under this model, the ‘European Free Trade Association (EFTA)' countries are part of the EU's internal market, so people, goods and services can move freely in the Schengen area. The three countries also follow many EU rules in areas like tourism, environment and education.

But there are some key distinctions. The countries have no part in the decision-making process, bar some input into policy preparation, such as participation in expert groups. They are also not in the customs union, do not use the Euro and are not bound by the EU's common trade policy or justice laws. Iceland held a referendum on whether to go for full membership last month, but the government's push to do so failed and they remain an EFTA country.


Bilateral agreements — Switzerland

While it borders four EU member states (Germany, Italy, France and Austria), Switzerland has never been a full member. Instead, more than 120 bilateral deals have been agreed upon by the EU and Switzerland over the last 50 years. These relate to areas such as trade, transport, security and education. A new package of deals was finalized last year, 20 years after they were last agreed.

As Trump menaces, some think Canada should join the EU   11:10

More than 1.5 million EU citizens live and work in Switzerland, while 466,200 Swiss have gone the other way. That is possible as Switzerland is also part of theSchengen area, allowing for free movement of people across borders.

Switzerland makes financial contributions to a number of EU member states that joined after expansion in 2004, mostly in the east of Europe, but it has no EU voting rights and adopts only some EU laws. Switzerland can also participate in certain EU programs and research projects, through individual negotiations.

The post Brexit agreement — UK

More than four years after the UK voted to leave the EU in a 2016 referendum, the two parties signed a trade and cooperation agreement. Negotiations were fraught and complex, and the UK now has limited access to the EU market and is aligned with the EU on some areas of policy and regulation, for now at least.

There is no longer free movement of people from the UK to the EU or vice versa, and the UK are not in the single market or the customs union. Since the center-left Labour party replaced the Conservatives in government in 2024, talk of a return to the customs union and alignment on other selected EU policy areas has been more frequent. But any return to full member status seems unlikely for now.

Stabilization and association process – Western Balkan countries

The EU has not admitted a new member state since Croatia in 2013. Several nearby countries in the region are hoping to join the bloc, but must first fulfill a number of criteria under the EU's "stabilization and association process" designed for the "Western Balkans." These are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

Under the plan, the EU has promised to "prepare Western Balkan partners for accession through economic reforms and investment and to bring some of the benefits of EU membership to citizens in the region."

States must first become official candidates for member state status by applying to the EU, with each of the member nations agreeing to them as a candidate country. Then follows a process of negotiation, such as that currently underway with Ukraine, Serbia and Montenegro. Finally, an accession treaty is prepared, which the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament must agree with. Only once that treaty has been signed and ratified by all member states and the candidate country will said country become an EU member.

EU enlargement: Who's slowing? Who's advancing? Who's next?  04:06

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

Matt Pearson Reporter and editor@thisismpearson

Amnesty Slams UEFA for Allowing Israel in Nations League Despite ‘Occupation, Apartheid, and Genocide’

“The beautiful game should bring people together, not rubber-stamp apartheid.”


Several hundred people protest outside Downing Street in central London against Israel’s military response to demonstrations in Gaza over the blockade of the strip.
(Photo by Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Brad Reed
Sep 22, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

Human rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday slammed the Union of European Football Associations for allowing the Israel men’s team to participate in upcoming Nations League matches despite the Israeli government’s continued systemic human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s regional director for Europe, called Israel’s participation in the UEFA games “unconscionable,” citing “clear evidence that Israel’s football association continues to support illegal settlements.”



Amnesty Warns Israel Is ‘Brazenly Expanding Its Annexation Agenda’ in Occupied West Bank



Amnesty Says US-Israeli Attacks With Indiscriminate Weapons in Tehran May Have Been War Crimes

Cockburn said that UEFA should have long ago suspended the Israel Football Association (IFA) over its “refusal to exclude clubs based in illegal settlements” in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“As the money keeps flowing from FIFA and UEFA to the IFA,” Cockburn said, “they risk contributing to the sustainability of illegal settlements and of Israel’s unlawful occupation... and therefore Israel’s violations of Palestinians’ human rights.”

“Sport should never be used as a public relations spectacle for states committing atrocities,” Cockburn added. “As the Israel team travels to Europe, Palestinian families are being displaced and dispossessed, their land stolen, their olive trees uprooted, and their histories erased by settlers with the support of the Israeli military. The beautiful game should bring people together, not rubber-stamp apartheid.”

As explained in a Tuesday report from BBC, Israeli’s inclusion in the Nations League has been a source of controversy for months.

Delegates for the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), which faced signifiant public pressure to boycott matches between Ireland and Israel, recently voted in favor of playing the matches, although roughly 30% of delegates voted in favor of a boycott.

Regardless, more than 160 Irish athletes on Monday signed an open letter organized by Irish Sport for Palestine urging FAI to reconsider its vote in favor of the matches.

Heimer Hallgrimsson, manager of the Irish men’s team, tried to justify the matches by arguing that Ireland was playing against Israel, which meant it was really playing “against genocide.”

The IFA shot back at Hallgrimsson, accusing him of “ignorance, hypocrisy, and stupidity.”

The BBC also noted that the two scheduled matches between Israel and Ireland will be played on neutral cites in Hungary and Serbia “against a backdrop of ongoing and increasingly volatile disagreement between the two countries about Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.”

Cockburn praised efforts by sports fans to keep pressure on the UEFA to “demand accountability, justice and, fair play.”

“When rules are broken, when occupation, apartheid, and genocide are ongoing,” he emphasized, “we cannot look the other way.”

India And Russia Are Rewriting Their Defense Partnership – Analysis


India's PM Narendra Modi and the President of Russia, Mr. Vladimir Putin witnessing the Exchange of MoUs between India and Russia in Hyderabad House, New Delhi on December 05, 2025. Photo Credit: India Prime Minister Office

September 22, 2026

By Nikola Mikovic

Key Takeaways:

After the Sept. 12–13 BRICS summit in New Delhi and Army Chief Gen. Dhiraj Seth’s first Russia visit by a top Indian commander in eight years, the article says the old buyer–seller model is giving way to tech-sharing and production in India.

Russian-origin kit still anchors much of India’s army, and Moscow still hopes to sell Su-57s, but Peskov says local manufacture is under negotiation; India now claims about 65% of hardware is made at home and is also buying from the U.S., France, and Italy.

Possible next steps include further BrahMos work, a Rosoboronexport offer to co-produce T-90MS tanks, and the Feb. 2025 RELOS logistics pact (troops, ships, and aircraft on each other’s soil). The author argues Ukraine’s strain on Russia leaves India freer to set terms—and perhaps even supply Moscow later.

Asia’s oldest defense relationship is changing, with India and Russia moving beyond traditional arms sales toward greater technology sharing and joint production. For decades, the partnership has been built around Russian military hardware, but India’s growing defense capabilities are now reshaping the balance between the two countries.

During the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a wide range of issues. In addition to political, economic, and energy ties, reports indicate that defense cooperation was also on the agenda.

Coincidentally or not, just days after their meeting, Indian Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth traveled to Russia for an official tour — marking the first such journey by a top military leader from New Delhi in eight years. India has traditionally been a major buyer of Russian military equipment, which is why Moscow hopes to sustain this one-sided purchasing relationship.


From infantry rifles and armored transports to heavy tanks and missile defense nodes, Russian weapons form the bedrock of India’s ground forces. India’s frontline armored and mechanized units are practically defined by their Russian-designed equipment. That reality, however, is beginning to look very different.

While Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Russia’s plans to supply India with the Su-57 fifth-generation multirole fighter, he emphasized that local manufacturing remains a point of negotiations. Historically, India was Russia’s largest weapons customer, importing finished military hardware straight from Russian factories. But now, a major portion of the Indian military’s flagship Russian-origin platforms are built right on Indian soil through licensed production and joint ventures.

“Every country, when producing new complex machines, wants to keep those technologies to itself. However, to strengthen the strategic partnership with New Delhi, the Russian side might share them,” Peskov suggested.

In other words, to maintain good military ties with India, Russia might have to make significant concessions to its partner, as New Delhi is no longer interested in purely commercial transactions and insists that any new contract include robust technology-sharing guarantees. In addition to developing closer military ties with Russia, India is also actively strengthening its own defense capabilities.


According to Ukrainian military intelligence, New Delhi continues to maintain close military ties with Moscow while steadily diversifying its defense imports in an effort to reduce its reliance on Russia. At the same time, India is placing greater emphasis on strengthening its domestic defense industry and expanding defense partnerships with Western countries, particularly the United States, France, and Italy.

Indian government estimates that roughly 65 percent of the country’s military hardware is now produced domestically, marking a major reversal from a decade ago, when approximately two-thirds of its military hardware was imported.

Thus, Russia’s mounting losses in Ukraine, combined with the rapid expansion of India’s military-industrial complex, could ultimately turn the two countries’ defense relationship on its head, with Moscow potentially looking to New Delhi not only as a customer, but also as a supplier of military equipment. In the meantime, the two countries are expected to expand their military cooperation, particularly in the area of joint production.
Future Options for India-Russia Military Collaboration

Looking ahead, Russia and India could deepen their work on missile development, particularly through further upgrades to the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. Developed jointly by the two countries, BrahMos is derived from Russia’s P-800 Oniks missile family, specifically its export variant, the Yakhont. Over the past 25 years, however, India has introduced numerous modifications and upgrades to BrahMos, giving the missile capabilities that distinguish it from its Russian predecessor. International experts argue that further modernization will nevertheless be necessary to keep pace with increasingly advanced air defense systems.


There is also room for deeper collaboration in the field of armored vehicles. In July, Russia’s state arms exporter, Rosoboronexport, offered India the opportunity to jointly produce the advanced T-90MS main battle tank. The proposal would represent an extension of an existing production arrangement, under which India already builds the vast majority of its T-90S tanks domestically, using a combination of locally manufactured and Russian-supplied components. However, as the Ukraine war has shown, in the era of drones, tanks are no longer the undisputed kings of the battlefield. Even Russian military experts argue that drones have made tanks and other armored vehicles unnecessary for both offensive and defensive operations. Therefore, it remains unclear whether India will be willing to invest heavily in expanding its fleet of conventional armored vehicles, particularly if the focus of its military modernization continues to shift toward newer technologies.

The broader trend, however, is clear: India and Russia are moving away from straightforward arms sales and toward jointly developing and producing military equipment in India. But the shift is not limited to weapons production. In February 2025, Moscow and New Delhi signed the Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics (RELOS) agreement allowing each country to have up to 3,000 troops, five warships, and 10 military aircraft present on the other’s territory at any one time, while also providing for services such as refueling, repairs, maintenance, and supplies.

Russia’s heavy naval losses during the war in Ukraine could significantly affect RELOS. Unable to maintain its own ships, Moscow could potentially seek assistance from India under the RELOS agreement.

Taken together, these developments put India in a stronger position in its defense partnership with Russia. As its own defense industry grows and Moscow faces increasing pressure from the war in Ukraine, New Delhi now has more room to shape the relationship on its own terms.

This article was published by Geopolitical Monitor.com


About Nikola Mikovic
Nikola Mikovic is a freelance journalist based in Serbia, reporting on geopolitics, energy, economics, tourism, and regional developments across Eurasia. His work has been featured in leading international outlets, including the South China Morning Post, CGTN, The Times of Central Asia, the Lowy Institute, Diplomatic Courier, and Byline Times, among others.
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BALKAN BLOG: Serbia’s students are testing a new way of doing politics

Anti-government student protest in Belgrade, June 28, 2025 / Gavrilo AndrićFacebookTwitterLinkedIn

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By Tatyana Kekic in Belgrade September 21, 2026

For nearly two years Serbia’s student protesters have occupied lecture halls, blocked roads and filled city squares. Now they are trying something rather harder: turning a movement without a conventional leader into a political organisation capable of running a country.

On September 14, the students submitted a list of 250 candidates for the snap parliamentary election on October 25. The list was subsequently certified by Serbia’s electoral commission with 69,099 valid signatures, nearly seven times the legal threshold of 10,000.

It is the clearest sign yet that the movement that emerged in the form of anti-corruption protests after the collapse of the Novi Sad railway-station canopy in November 2024 has the potential to move from the streets into electoral politics.

Its central promise is deliberately broad: change the way Serbia is governed.

The list, called Students’ List—Students Win, is headed not by a veteran opposition politician but by Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist and professor at the University of Novi Sad who was little known outside academic and medical circles before the protests.

Srdanović has twice declined President Aleksandar Vučić's invitation to a televised debate, including an offer to meet on the independent broadcasters N1 or Nova S, saying he would speak to people who “have something to say and know something”.

Behind Srdanović are doctors, professors, engineers, artists, farmers and activists. Among the better-known candidates are Dejan Bodiroga, the former basketball star and current president of the EuroLeague, former National Bank of Serbia governor Dejan Šoškić, actor Tihomir Stanić and former athlete Mihail Dudaš.

The students say candidates were chosen through plenums and collective decision-making rather than by party leaders. They reject the idea of building the movement around a single figure, saying parliamentary mandates should be treated as public work rather than political prizes.

That puts the list at some distance from Serbia’s established party system, where political organisations have been closely identified with their leaders.

The ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is running under the banner Aleksandar Vučić—United Serbia, putting the president at the top of its list as he prepares to leave the presidency and seek the prime minister’s job.

Vučić is followed by Miloš Vučević, the SNS president and former prime minister, and Ana Brnabić, parliament speaker and former prime minister. The ticket also includes doctors, professors, artists, athletes and students, among them violinist Jovan Kolundžija, actors Branislav Lečić and Lidija Vukićević, former basketball player Željko Rebrača and Miloš Pavlović, a student who organised pro-government rallies.

The wider governing camp contains a generation of ministers and senior officials with years of experience in government, including Siniša Mali, Zlatibor Lončar, Marko Đurić and Bratislav Gašić, although they are not among the 250 parliamentary candidates.

The student movement is bringing people into electoral politics who have worked outside the political establishment, while the governing camp can draw on a deep pool of politicians and officials accustomed to running ministries and state institutions.

That difference is central to the argument the students are making about how Serbia should be governed — and to the questions they will face if they win seats.

From protest to programme

The students have tried to demonstrate that they are offering more than an anti-Vučić campaign. Their 11-point programme is divided into three broad sections: “Serbia or the Mafia”, “Knowledge is Power” and “Serbia Grows With Us”.

Much of it concerns the institutions that protesters say contributed to the Novi Sad disaster. The students propose greater independence for prosecutors and judges, scrutiny of politicians’ wealth, investigations into corruption, greater transparency in public procurement and audits of major infrastructure projects. They also want to reform the media regulator and public broadcaster.

The economic programme includes support for start-ups, domestic businesses and farmers, closer links between universities and employers, competitive appointments to state-owned companies, cheaper medicines and affordable housing. Other proposals include free school textbooks and restrictions on the use of fixed-term employment contracts.

It is a programme focused more on repairing institutions than on radically remaking the economy. There is also relatively little detail on some of the questions that have long divided Serbian politics, including relations with the European Union, Russia and China, Kosovo, energy security and public finances.

That breadth and ambiguity reflect the coalition the students have assembled. The movement has brought together university professors, farmers, artists, liberals, nationalists and people who had previously stayed away from politics. Avoiding positions on issues that could divide that coalition may help preserve it; it could also become harder once parliamentary politics forces decisions on specific policies.

A crowded opposition

The students are not the only opposition force on the ballot. Several established opposition parties have backed the movement rather than fielding their own candidates. These include the Democratic Party, the Green-Left Front, the Movement of Free Citizens and other opposition groups.

But the opposition remains fragmented. A pro-European coalition comprising the Freedom and Justice Party, Serbia Centre and the Solidarity movement is running separately under the name European Serbia. A right-wing alliance of the New Democratic Party of Serbia and the Monarchists is also contesting the election under the banner Authentic Right.

The student movement has therefore entered an electoral field in which it is both an alternative to the established opposition and dependent on some of its support.

The government, by contrast, has a political organisation built over years. The SNS has a nationwide network, established campaign infrastructure and politicians with experience in government.

The students have demonstrated a different kind of organisational capacity: mass mobilisation, local networks and the ability to collect tens of thousands of signatures in a short period.

The experience question

Vučić has already made the students’ lack of ideology and governing experience a central line of attack. He has accused them of lacking political experience and a clear vision for Serbia, arguing that running the state is too serious to be entrusted to people without experience in government.

The composition of the student list offers a different definition of expertise.

A doctor, a university professor or an engineer may have spent years managing complex organisations and making decisions with significant consequences, but that experience is not the same as running a ministry or negotiating a state budget.

The movement has also deliberately avoided appointing a conventional political leader. That has helped it maintain a collective identity during the protests, but government would bring different demands: negotiating coalitions, choosing ministers, managing a bureaucracy and resolving disagreements among people who may share a desire for institutional change without sharing the same views on everything else.

Those questions have so far remained largely hypothetical. The movement's immediate objective has been simpler: turn the energy of the protests into votes.