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Serbia unveiled to the public on Saturday an anti-aircraft system recently purchased from China, raising concerns in the West and among some of Serbia’s neighbors over an arms race in the Balkans that could threaten fragile peace in the region.
The sophisticated HQ-22 surface-to-air missile system was delivered to Serbia last month by a number of Chinese Air Force Y-20 transport aircraft. This is thought to be the largest air shipment of Chinese weapons to Europe.
Although Serbia formally seeks membership in the European Union, it is mainly armed with Russian and Chinese weapons, including T-72 combat tanks, MiG-29 fighter jets, Mi-35 fighter helicopters and drones.
In 2020, US officials urged Belgrade not to buy Chinese HQ-22 anti-aircraft systems. The version of this system that is exported outside China is also known as “FK-3”. US officials said that if Serbia really wants to join the EU and other Western alliances, it must harmonize its military equipment with Western standards.
The Chinese missile system is widely compared to the US Patriot missile system and the Russian S-300 missile system, although it has a shorter range than the more advanced Russian S-300 missiles. Serbia is the first Chinese missile operator in Europe.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the end of the weapons exhibition at a military airport near Belgrade that Chinese missiles, as well as other recently delivered military equipment, were not a threat to anyone and represented only a “powerful deterrent” against possible attacks on his country.
“We will no longer serve as a victim to anyone,” Mr Vucic said, referring apparently to the 78-day NATO bombing of Serbia over the bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanians in 1999.
Serbia, which was at war with its neighbors in the 1990s, does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, declared in 2008. It still has cold relations with NATO members Croatia and Montenegro, as well as with Bosnia. The leader of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, took part in a military exercise by Serbian forces on Saturday.
President Vuçi tha said that Serbia was also negotiating the purchase of French Dessault Rafale military aircraft, as well as British Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. He said only “political obstacles” could stop the purchase of Western aircraft.
There are growing concerns that Russia could push its ally Serbia to start an armed conflict with its neighbors, in a bid to divert public attention at least in part from the war in Ukraine.
Although Serbia has voted in favor of UN resolutions condemning the bloody Russian attack on Ukraine, it has refused to join international sanctions against its allies in Moscow or to directly criticize the atrocities committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.
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