Serbia – Mass shooting in Mladenovac (May 5, 2023)

We were shocked and appalled to learn about a new mass shooting yesterday evening in Mladenovac, Serbia, which resulted in numerous casualties.

We offer our most heartfelt condolences to the bereaved and we wish those who were wounded a speedy recovery.

France stands with Serbia and expresses its wholehearted solidarity with the Serbian people and authorities amid this tragedy.

Q&A

Did France take part in the American peace plan for Azerbaijan and Armenia relating to Nagorno-Karabakh? What are its chances of success?

Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna traveled to Armenia and Azerbaijan last week to move the two countries toward a peace agreement. We coordinated closely with the United States on this effort, and we commend the U.S. role in organizing a negotiating session in Washington; we also worked with our European partners in this regard. We hope that the revival of EU mediation efforts will contribute to the positive momentum created by the meeting in Washington.

France has long been engaged in an effort to resolve the conflict. As Ms. Colonna stated in Baku and Yerevan last week, negotiations are the only way to achieve an agreement and bring about peace. Any use of force, or threats to use force, must be ruled out.

With that goal in mind, the EU is actively working to ease tensions between the two countries, particularly through the deployment of EUMA, the EU monitoring mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, whose principles were established in Prague at a meeting held on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit on October 6, 2022, between President Macron, President of the EU Council Charles Michel, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.