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Yugoslavia The Middle East and Western Europe
Yugoslav policy toward the Middle East continued the Tito
line through the 1980s, supporting the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) and forswearing relations with Israel. This
policy continued to be driven by the need to protect sources of
oil and other imports from that area. When PLO head Yasir Arafat
made an official visit to Belgrade in 1988 to urge that
Yugoslavia act as a peacemaker in the Middle East, he was
received warmly. In 1989 Israel urged that Yugoslavia accord it
diplomatic recognition so that the 1989 Summit of Nonaligned
Nations also could be used for advancing peace in the Middle
East. Yugoslavia did not do so. At the turn of the decade,
Yugoslavia also sought to resume the close relations with Egypt
initially established between Tito and Nasser. This was given
priority because Egypt had rejoined the Arab League and become a
major force in regional peace efforts.
By 1990 Yugoslavia's relations with West European nations
were defined by the need to participate more fully in European
markets and alleviate a grave balance-of-payments situation.
Budimir Loncar, foreign secretary in the Markovic government, was
especially active in talks with Italy and the Federal Republic of
Germany (West Germany), Yugoslavia's largest West European trade
partners in the 1980s, at the turn of the decade
(see Foreign Trade
, ch. 3). In the case of both countries, past political
issues hampered progress: West Germany continued to refuse World
War II reparations claims by Yugoslavia, and bad feelings were
caused by treatment of the Slovenian minority in Italy. Another
problem in the late 1980s was the decline of leftist political
parties in West European countries, notably Italy, France, and
the Federal Republic of Germany; those parties naturally were
more sympathetic to Yugoslav positions than the more conservative
groups that dominated by 1990. In its relations with the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Yugoslavia pressed for
designation of the Mediterranean Sea as a "zone of peace," to
eliminate the danger posed by American missiles in nearby Italy,
and to defuse tension in the Middle East.
Yugoslavia made frequent overtures for membership in the EEC,
to expand markets for its exports in the 1980s and to compensate
for increased protectionism within the community. The EEC made
clear the requirement that Yugoslavia establish a national
multiparty system before admittance would be considered. This
increased the incentive to end domination of the LCY and follow
the example of East Bloc liberalization set by 1990. Meanwhile,
Yugoslavia built a potential bridge to the EEC by establishing
closer ties with members of the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA), a group of neutral European nations given special trade
status by the EEC.
Data as of December 1990
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