BELGRADE – Belgrade Security Conference 2025 was concluded on 19 November with a keynote speech by Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, who congratulated the organisers on a successful conference.
“The Balkans, for me, are really at the epicentre of many of the trends that are fastly reshaping Europe today. The Balkans are being reshaped by the broader power competition in many different ways. It is also being reshaped by trends that are also evolving, the Transatlantic link. And so this region has also been chronicling, if I can use that word, a crossroads of history”, de Hoop Scheffer said.
According to her, the way forward is crystal clear.
“Euro-Atlantic and European integration remain the most effective path to lasting peace and prosperity… But again, all of this should not be taken for granted. We all know that, especially with the war in Ukraine. Peace, prosperity, democracy are being highly tested”, she said.
Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer assessed that we are not experiencing a crisis of democracy, but a crisis of performance.
“This is the inability of governments to address, tackle, and design responses to today’s and tomorrow’s domestic and global challenges… And so with that, I think we’re particularly proud to see in the room tonight many of the key actors, stakeholders in this conversation. Journalists, academics, think tankers, parliamentarians, what we call change makers”, she said.
In his closing speech, Igor Bandović, Director of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, stated that, in April, it was not certain that the conference would take place at all due to domestic and international challenges.
“Not only did we preserve the very existence of the conference, we delivered the strongest Belgrade Security Conference yet. This year, we had more than 743 registered participants. During these three days, we organised 18 panels and two keynote speeches and brought together more than 100 speakers”, Bandović said.
He added that despite many challenges, which included advice to some colleagues and partners from the region not to travel for security reasons, participants came together and made the conference happen.
“The panel on Serbia was a quantum of hope. A reminder that genuine conversation is still possible even when the obstacles before us are so enormous, when the forces and resources of the other side are far greater than anything any of us can confront alone. It showed that only by standing together in a shared, principled, coordinated front can we hope to defend space for truth and freedom”, she said.
