Serbia refuses to buy Russian fighter jets and will buy French ones

Instead of purchasing Russian fighter jets, which have been discussed since last year, Serbia plans to buy French Rafale.

Source. This was announced on Monday by President Aleksandar Vucic, Bloomberg reports.

According to Vucic, it has become impossible to maintain Russian MiG-29s, the last batch of which Serbia received in 2017.

"Almost nothing related to military purposes can be imported from Russia," he explained, adding that despite the difficulties with Russian supplies, Serbia plans to continue modernizing its armed forces.

The military budget for 2023 could be increased by 700 million euros from the current 1.5 billion euros, Vucic said at the IDEX 2023 arms exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

According to him, the additional funds will be used to modernize tanks, purchase infantry fighting vehicles and drones, as well as French aircraft. The deal will be worth 3 billion euros if the negotiations are successful, Vucic said.

At the end of last year, the Serbian Defense Ministry reported that it was considering two options for replenishing the Air Force fleet. In addition to the Rafale, the military was studying Russian fighter jets, said the head of the ministry, Nebojsa Stefanovic.

But apparently, the imposition of large-scale anti-Russian sanctions has finally closed the question of Serbia's purchase of new Russian fighters, experts at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) say.

Serbia may join the sanctions against Russia, warned the country's Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić in late January. According to him, Belgrade also considers joining the EU a "priority," which requires joining the pan-European policy, including sanctions.