This year, Serbia will spend close to 740 million euros for the procurement of military equipment, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday at a press conference on the premises of the Military Security Agency (VBA).
Vucic said this in the context of the United States’ (U.S.) decision to sell Javelin anti-tank missiles to the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF).
“Serbia currently has 186 million euros of free funds, which we will immediately spend on the purchase of tools and weapons from domestic factories of the arms industry,” Vucic stated.
As he said, during this year, two more packages with 150 million and 400 million euros will be ready for additional equipment and arming of the Serbian Armed Forces. This money was allocated in addition to the 360 million euros allocated in the Serbian Budget for additional armament, Vucic explained.
“When you add it all up, you will see that this will be the year in which we equip ourselves the best, the fastest, and the strongest,” Vucic emphasized.
Serbia, he added, will take an additional eight “Nora” self-propelled howitzers, 81 “Milos” armored vehicles, 26 infantry fighting vehicles, and 30 turrets for the “Lazar” fighting vehicle.
“All this equipment and vehicles should arrive by 2026,” he said.
Commenting on the U.S. decision to sell Kosovo 246 U.S.-made anti-tank missiles, as well as accompanying equipment, Vucic said that this move is contrary to Resolution 1244, which, he said, does not provide for Kosovo to have an army.
“According to Resolution 1244, there must not be any groups of armed Kosovar Albanians, but they created an army and continue to create it. Are we strong enough like the U.S., England, Germany, Turkey – we are not. But we can point out to the whole world that they are violating international legal norms in a brutal way,” Vucic pointed out.
Previously, on January 11th, the President of Serbia characterized as a “big disappointment” the U.S. announcement that it approved Pristina to buy the U.S. Javelin system after the decision was presented to him by U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill.
About the Serbian elections in the European Parliament
Answering a question about the extraordinary session of the European Parliament, where the elections held in Serbia on December 17th should be discussed, Vucic said that he was only interested in the session of the Serbian Parliament.
“I don’t know about any session of the European Parliament, nor am I interested. I am interested in the session of the Serbian Parliament,” he reiterated.
The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), whose official is Aleksandar Vucic, won the extraordinary parliamentary, provincial, and local elections, which were contested by part of the opposition, claiming that the elections were stolen.
SNS denies this, with the assessment that these were the elections with the least irregularities so far.
Klement Groselj, the European representative from the group of liberals, said in an interview on January 12th that the European People’s Party (EPP) stands in the way of the requests of other parliamentary groups in the European Parliament to hold an extraordinary debate on the elections in Serbia under the roof of that institution.
The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is an associate member of the EPP, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
