+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

A European country that may not be real is angling for good relations with Donald Trump

Dec 6, 2016, 19:56 IST

The self-proclaimed president of the &quotFree Republic of Liberland," Vit Jedlicka, center, poses with the Liberland flag and future citizenships in the village of Backi Monostor, Serbia, May 1, 2015. Jedlicka, a Czech citizen, has proclaimed a new sovereign state lying on the border between Croatia and Serbia. According to the founders, the plot of land they chose remained unclaimed by Croatia, Serbia, or any other country when the border was drawn, and the nearest settlements are Zmajevac in Croatia and Backi Monostor in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Its size of around 7 square kilometers would make &quotLiberland" the third-smallest sovereign state in Europe, after Vatican City and Monaco.REUTERS/Antonio Bronic

Advertisement

"There are many ties and shared ideas between Liberland and President Trump," the self-proclaimed president of Liberland, Vit Jedlicka, told The Washington Post this weekend.

Jedlicka declared sovereignty over a 3-square-mile spit of land on the Danube River in April 2015, taking advantage of a decades-long dispute between Croatia and Serbia over their border.

Jedlicka, a Czech citizen with libertarian leanings and a Euroskeptic, found out about the territory while reading about "terra nullius" - "nobody's land" in Latin - on Wikipedia.

While Jedlicka is optimist about relations between his country and the Trump administration, the nascent relationship faces a peculiar and significant hurdle: Neither the US nor any other country recognizes Liberland's existence.

Advertisement

Liberland disputed territory seen from across the Danube river, near Backi Monostor, Serbia, May 1, 2015. The inauguration of world's new mini-state in the war-torn Balkans may sound as an elaborate joke by international organizers, but Croats and Serbs aren't laughing. The so-called Free Republic of Liberland, a 7-square-kilometer swampy patch of isolated land on the banks of the Danube river border between Serbia and Croatia - which fought a war in the 1990s - has been blocked by police in both states.AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

Jedlicka has links with anti-establishment political movements elsewhere in Europe, and he recently appointed Thomas Walls, a US citizen, as Liberland's foreign minister.

Jedlicka told Business Insider in April 2015 that he was against most forms of government assistance and that taxes in his country would be voluntary.

"We don't really care that much, because the government will have very little expenditure," he said at the time. "We will have so much money that we will not know how to spend it."

Jedlicka also told The Post he plans to attend Trump's inauguration in January were in the works, but he wouldn't say precisely who his connection to the US president-elect was.

Advertisement

"We can say we have a strong supporter of Liberland who is a close adviser to one of Trump's already announced cabinet picks and somewhat famous in his own right," Walls told The Post. "Another member of the Liberland team has just published one of Trump's books in Europe."

You are subscribed to notifications!
Looks like you've blocked notifications!
Next Article