Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic completed his first standalone bilateral visit to China, signalling a clear strategic pivot toward Beijing as Belgrade's preferred great power partner. During the trip, President Xi Jinping awarded Vucic the Order of Friendship, celebrating what he described as a "steel friendship" forged through "blood and fire," while China pledged roughly 953 million euros ($1.11 billion) in new investments in Serbia. The visit — Vucic's eighth to China but his first outside a multilateral context — signals that for Serbia's ruling coalition, Beijing has now overtaken Moscow as its most valued international ally, reflecting both economic interests and broader geopolitical repositioning.