During his two-day visit to Paris, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that he expects to sign the contract for the purchase of 12 Rafale combat aircraft in the next two months, and that French President Emmanuel Macron will attend the signing.
The financial details of the potential deal are not known, but the media close to the authorities in Belgrade published estimates that it is about 3.2 billion euros.
Vučić’s visit, otherwise accompanied by exceptional attention from the pro-government media in Serbia, also took place with the support of Paris to Belgrade on the European road, and the signing of a bilateral memorandum of understanding between the Serbian and French electricity companies, which creates the conditions for a strategic partnership in assessing the potential for the development of a civil nuclear and energy transition program in Serbia.
Among the topics of Vučić and Macron were also discussions on military-technical cooperation, as well as the dialogue process with Kosovo.
The American news agency AP announced on Tuesday that Serbia is “close to signing a contract for the purchase of 12 French Rafale multi-role fighter jets”, assessing that this would “mark a shift away from traditional military supplier Russia”.
According to AP, Serbia has been considering the purchase of new aircraft for more than two years since Croatia bought 12 used aircraft of the same type for about one billion euros.
“The rapid arming of the Serbian army worries some of its neighbors after the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s,” writes AP, reminding that Serbia is a candidate for EU membership, and most of the countries it is surrounded by are members of NATO.
