1,000 members

Serbia reacted with a plan to reduce the power of Albanians in the province and a propaganda campaign that claimed Serbs were being pushed out of the province primarily by the growing Albanian population, rather than the bad state of the economy.

120,000 Serbs

For 78 days in 1999, NATO forces led by the United States bombed Yugoslavia, killing hundreds of its civilians and devastating its infrastructure. NATO spokesmen justified the bombardment as “humanitarian intervention” aimed at halting President Slobodan Milosevic’s “ethnic cleansing” of non-Serbs in Yugoslavia.

Security Partnership Serbia has also been an active participant in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program for more than a decade, and the United States has been a firm and consistent supporter of Serbia’s efforts to strengthen its relationship with NATO.

Serbia has established diplomatic relations with 191 out of the other 193 UN member states, the Holy See and Palestine, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and the European Union.

Serbia and Russia are both predominantly Slavic and Eastern Orthodox countries and share a strong mutual cultural affinity, making Serbia Russia’s closest ally in Europe; this has been strongly maintained despite Serbia’s attempt to integrate within the West.

Cultural relations The Polish and Serbian languages, both part of the Slavic languages (West and South branches, respectively), are related but not mutually intelligible.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008 and Poland recognised it on 26 February 2008. Poland was the first Slavic country to do so.

Slovak language, Slovak Slovenčina, West Slavic language closely related to Czech, Polish, and the Sorbian languages of eastern Germany. It is the official language of Slovakia. Slovak is written in the Roman (Latin) alphabet.