Serbia abandons the MiG-29. In words - because of sanctions, in reality - I long ago agreed on the purchase of French Rafales
Serbia will increase spending on army modernization, including for the possible purchase of French Rafale fighter jets, since sanctions have made maintaining Russian MiG-29s difficult.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced this on February 20 while visiting the International Arms Exhibition IDEX-2023 in Abu Dhabi.
In fact, agreements on the purchase of a Rafale squadron were reached back in March last year at the level of the presidents of Serbia and France. In the fall of 2022, the media reported that Serbian pilots had already begun training flights on French aircraft, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
In October 2017, Serbia received six MiG-29 fighters from Russia as military-technical assistance, these were the first new combat aircraft in the Serbian army since 1987. The ceremony of handing over the fighters was attended by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. At the same time, Vucic handed Shoigu six dirks with the side numbers of the MiG-29, donated by Russia, embossed on the blades.
Vucic did not remember this in Abu Dhabi, but only stated that after February last year, the purchase of spare parts for them became almost impossible.
“Now you can import almost nothing from Russia or almost nothing that has a military purpose. Not because of the Russians,” Vucic emphasized.
Serbian commentators link the Serbian President's statement to his meeting with the French President and German Chancellor at the Munich Security Conference. It is possible that Emmanuel Macron offered Aleksandar Vucic a discount on the Rafale - in the form of a kind of bribe for accepting the so-called Franco-German settlement plan for Kosovo.
Как reported "PolitNavigator", February 11, Aleksandar Vucic said that the Serbian authorities are waiting for the “right moment” to impose sanctions against Russia, and “the question is not about months.”
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