Israeli President Isaac Herzog concluded his historic first visit to Albania in September, shortly after his first-ever trip to Serbia, where both sides agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation amid Israel's extending military campaign against Hamas and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Although the recent intensive diplomatic dialogue between Israel and Balkan states is gaining more impetus, it is not a new phenomenon. In the last five years, much has been done to ensure Israel’s expanding diplomatic, security, and economic ties with the Balkans, particularly with Albania and Serbia. 

In light of the worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and Israel’s large-scale military campaign in Gaza and southern Lebanon, Tel Aviv sought to build new alliances and partnerships at a critical time. Hence, Israel's kinship in building security ties with Serbia is essential, given its well-established defence industry in the Balkan region. 

For example, recently, independent sources confirmed that since October 2023, shortly after Israel launched the Gaza campaign against Hamas, Serbian military aircraft carrying weaponry and ammunition landed in Israel, with additional similar flights in February, March and May. Reportedly, Serbia’s main state-owned arms trader, Yugoimport-SDPR, exported arms to Israel worth €14mn in March 2024, ignoring the calls of the United Nations to halt arms exports to Israel to prevent further civilian death tolls in the Gaza Strip. The most recent data suggest that as of September 2024, Serbia has sent over $25.6mn worth of weapons to Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

For Serbia, strengthening military ties with Israel is a viable option for fostering relations with the West, which unilaterally supports Israel's military campaign, referring to its right to self-defence against terrorism. However, the mounting criticism and isolationism of Israel amid devastating civilian casualties in Gaza and the most recent incursion into Lebanon could have long-term ramifications for Serbia. Therefore, Belgrade put enormous efforts into maintaining a relatively neutral position regarding the current war, avoiding making any anti-Palestinian statement, though it ruled out the possibility of ceasing arms supply to Israel. 

Indeed, partnership in defence paved the way for Israel's growing footprint in the Balkan region. In this regard, Serbia is not the only option for Israel as in June 2024, Albanian Defence Minister Niko Peleshi landed in Israel to meet his counterpart Yoav Gallant and signed a memorandum of understanding to promote joint security and defence infrastructure. Unlike Serbia, Albania is not a weapon exporter, but it is keen on importing Israeli-made weaponry given Tirana’s tense relations with Iran over its hosting of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an anti-Iranian regime organisation, on its soil. As a result, in October 2022, Iran conducted an unprecedented cyber attack against Albania, which exposed the country’s vulnerability, pushing Tirana toward a deeper partnership with Israel, particularly in the cybersecurity field. On the other hand, in 2024, Albania became Israel's third-largest fuel oil supplier after Russia and Brazil, shipping over 70,000 tonnes.

In addition to defence/military ties, Israel likely views the Balkan region as another platform for intelligence purposes against its opponents in the region, particularly Iran and Turkey. The relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv worsened dramatically following the latter's war in the Gaza Strip and resulted in halting diplomatic ties, as well as all trade operations. Given Turkey's cordial relations with Hamas and Arab countries, Israeli intelligence is particularly keen to gather as much data as it can.

As such, the Balkan region, with its close economic and historical ties with Turkey, could become a safe haven for the Israeli intelligence network against Turkey and Iran. Therefore, the arrest of a Kosovan citizen in Turkey by Turkish counterintelligence should come as a little surprise. The suspect was reportedly believed to have been transferring money to operatives of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, including sending money to informants “who were filming with drones, conducting psychological warfare against Palestinian politicians and collecting information about the situation in Syria”, according to Turkish intelligence sources. 

Growing international condemnation makes Israel's current situation more complex. Nevertheless, Israel seems determined to boost its legitimacy amid the extended war by building new partnerships with the Balkan states. In exchange, Serbia and Albania likely seek to gain the support of the powerful Israeli lobby organisations based in Washington to boost their influence in the White House. 

The pragmatic foreign policy agenda amid the devastating war is the primary stimulus behind Israel's outreach to the Balkan region, in which it had only previously had a peripheral presence. 

Fuad Shahbazov is a policy analyst covering regional security issues in the South Caucasus. He was a research fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies and previously a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic Communications, both in Azerbaijan. He was also a visiting scholar at the Daniel Morgan School of National Security in Washington, DC. He tweets at @fuadshahbazov.