The foreign policy and diplomatic tradition of Serbia derive from its independent state in the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

In the nineteenth century, when the movement for independence from the Ottoman Empire became irrepressible, especially after the First Serbian Uprising (1804) under Karađorđe and the Second Uprising (1815) under Miloš Obrenović, Serbia embarked upon an ever-broader diplomatic rapport with the Porte in Constantinople, with Russia, Austria, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other European nations and neighboring states, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

The Kingdom's joining of the Axis Tripartite Pact on March 25, 1941 was revoked, by the will of the Serbian people, on the streets of Belgrade two days later.

During World War II, in which Yugoslavia was allied against the Axis Powers, a new Yugoslav federal state came into being that was proclaimed and internationally recognized in 1945.

After 2001 embassies in Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Lebanon, Mongolia, North Korea, Pakistan, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe were closed due to financial or reciprocal reasons.

In June 2008, the government of Serbia made the decision to close consulates in Bari, Graz and Malmö,[6] and later that year Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić announced plans to open a consulate-general in Knin, Croatia[7] and an embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Serbia also hosts representatives of the Palestinian National Authority and Sovereign Military Order of Malta and 13 Honorary Consuls, some accredited as Ambassadors.

The Diplomatic Archive has published the collections of public documents on foreign affairs of the SFRY between 1945 and 1950 in eight volumes called Blue edition.