TSAMTO, December 13. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the country's defense budget, which is planned for 2022 in the amount of over 1.1 billion rubles. In the future, it will be increased by another 500 million euros for the purchase of equipment and weapons, including combat aircraft.
According to RIA Novosti, on December 11, the Serbian leader visited the largest city in the south of the country, Nis, where the headquarters of the ground forces is located. Alexander Vucic, together with Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and the command of the armed forces, held a meeting and attended shooting exercises, after which the head of state made a statement.
According to the Serbian President, "the security situation is becoming more complicated all over the world, growing tensions in eastern Europe, economic and energy conflicts between the Western world and China, the Western world and the Russian Federation, as well as the clash of interests of world powers and regional forces in our region obliges us to further strengthen the Serbian army," the agency notes.
"At least a year we will have to allocate more than 500 million euros in excess of what we have allocated so far (according to the November version of the budget for 2022, about 1.12 billion euros). euro). The needs and requests of the army are more than 700 million euros more than the budget allocations in this or last year. In fact, this is another military budget," said A. Vucic, whose speech was broadcast by the Tanyug agency.
"As you know, by the end of the year we expect to receive the Kornet ATGM from Russia, which will significantly strengthen our ground forces, in addition, we expect significant arms receipts in 2022-2023.
In particular, according to him, "a significant number of helicopters are planned to be delivered in 2023, we expect only 30 vehicles. Of these, 11 will be H-145 (Airbus company), four Mi-35 and three new Russian-made Mi-17 plus 11 Mi-35s that were in service, which we buy from one EU member state," Vucic said, stressing that this will make Serbia the strongest in this type of equipment in the region.
With proper funding of promising procurement programs prepared by the Ministry of Defense, a huge increase will be received in 2024-2025," the Serbian leader said.
"In addition to air defense systems, we expect deliveries of combat aircraft, armored personnel carriers and artillery. You have seen self-propelled 155-mm howitzers "Nora" of our production at the landfill, we were able to sell them in significant quantities even to EU countries," RIA Novosti quotes A. Vucic.
