While the world was waiting eagerly to see if President Joe Biden would renounce his candidacy, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, almost unnoticed, was visiting Belgrade. Unheralded and arranged at short notice, his meeting a couple of weeks ago with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vu?i? was nonetheless quite the party.
Accompanying Scholz were senior executives from Mercedes, Stellantis, the mining company Rio Tinto and three electric vehicle battery manufacturers — not to mention Maro? ?ef?ovi?, the EU commissioner in charge of critical raw materials strategy, and the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Together they hailed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the EU and Serbia to forge a partnership in critical raw materials and the establishment of a value chain for the manufacture of batteries and EVs.