Relations between United Kingdom and independent South Slavic states (primarily Serbia) developed before creation of Yugoslavia following the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the UK was perceived as a friendly country and natural ally in European and international affairs.

[1][page needed] Following the Yugoslav coup d'état, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia entered World War II on the Allied side.

[2] British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito met in Naples on 12 August 1944.

Following the Tito–Stalin split of 1948 the Labour government developed a friendly relationship with the anti-Stalinist League of Communists of Yugoslavia beginning in the 1950s.