Minsk and Belgrade aim to strengthen military-technical cooperation

There is a steady trend towards a rapprochement between Belarus and Serbia in the security field and the parties invest their hopes in military-technical cooperation.

On April 26^th, 2019, President Lukashenka met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in Beijing on the margins of the 2019 Belt and Road Forum. Among other issues, the presidents discussed prospects for military-technical cooperation. The Belarusian leader expressed his readiness to cooperate with Serbia and supply the necessary military equipment to Belgrade. In turn, Vučić declared his readiness to enhance military-technical cooperation with Belarus and thanked Minsk for the assistance rendered to Serbia (the transfer of four MiG-29 fighters to the Serbian Air Force).

Earlier, a delegation of the Belarusian State Committee for the Defense Industry headed by First Deputy Minister Igor Demidenko visited Serbian military-industrial complex following an invitation by Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin. On April 18^th, 2019, Serbia held a demonstration firing at the Nikinchi test site from self-propelled artillery systems and multiple rocket launcher systems made in Serbia. In addition, guests could familiarize with samples of wheeled armored vehicles manufactured at the Serbian military industrial complex.

For several years Minsk and Belgrade have been scaling up cooperation, including military-technical. The absence of major political differences and trustworthy relations between the political leaders create a favourable background for bilateral military-industrial cooperation. However, what this means today is rather the presence of interest and cooperation potential. Future will show whether this grows into practical cooperation. In any case, Minsk and Belgrade demonstrate the intention to materialize the existing military technical cooperation potential.