Serbia

Serbia (Serbian: Србија / Srbija), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија / Republika Srbija, listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. Serbia is bordered by Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia and Albania^[1] to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west. The capital is Belgrade.

For centuries, shaped at cultural boundaries between East and West, a powerful medieval Kingdom – later renamed Serbian Empire – occupied much of the Balkans. The modern state of Serbia emerged in 1817 following the Serbian revolution. Later, it expanded its territory further south to include Kosovo and the regions of Raška and Vardar Macedonia. Formerly an autonomous Habsburg crownland, Vojvodina proclaimed its secession from Austria-Hungary on November 25, 1918 to unite with Serbia, preceded by the Syrmia region. The current borders of the country were established following the end of World War II, when Serbia became a federal unit within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia became an independent state again in 2006, after Montenegro left the union which was formed after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1990s.

In 1999 Kosovo was placed under interim UN administration pursuant to UN Resolution 1244. In February 2008 the parliament of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. Serbia’s government, as well as the UN Security Council, have not recognised Kosovo’s independence. The response from the international community has been mixed. In April 2008 Serbia was offered to enter the intensified dialogue programme with NATO despite the diplomatic rift with the Alliance over Kosovo