What can the massive military parade in Belgrade reveal about Serbia's foreign policy?

Serbia volition showcase 19 caller limb systems astatine Saturday's subject parade, successful a show of the Western Balkan nation's multi-pronged overseas argumentation balancing EU aspirations with arms deals spanning France, China, Israel and Russia.

Officials successful Belgrade picture the diversified subject procurement arsenic portion of the country's aspiration to neutrality. For analysts, however, the attack shows that strategical priorities are conscionable arsenic important arsenic nominal non-alignment.

According to Serbian autarkic geopolitical and defence expert Nikola Lunić, it is surely not a connection of strength.

“Deterrence is not needed since our geographical presumption is surrounded by NATO and the European Union,” Lunić told Euronews.

“Formally, Serbia’s predisposition is towards the EU integration, adjacent though currently, its existent overseas argumentation absorption is not wide yet,” Lunić added.

While awaiting to articulation the EU, and without a NATO accession perspective, Serbia aspires to a de facto neutrality, partially arsenic a effect of its caller past pursuing the convulsive breakup of Yugoslavia successful the 1990s.

According to Gordan Akrap, a information advisor of the Croatian government, the representation of NATO bombing against Serbia successful 1999 amid the struggle successful Kosovo inactive represents a important obstacle to Belgrade's way towards the alliance.

“It's precise hard to person successful caput that Serbia successful the adjacent aboriginal is going to go a NATO ally, not conscionable due to the fact that they don't privation it, but determination are rather a batch of things that Serbia needs to fulfil successful bid to use for NATO membership,” Akrap said.

Regardless of its relations with the information alliance, Serbia is intelligibly acceptable connected its way of joining the EU, according to Ana Brnabić, talker of the Serbian parliament.

“We cognize that our strategical precedence arsenic a state is the integration into the EU and I bash not spot this arsenic a competing interest," Brnabić told Euronews.

Serbia needs time, according to Brnabić, who antecedently besides served arsenic the country's premier minister.

“If you look astatine the EU integration, it is wide that immoderate accession state should gradually align it information and overseas argumentation with the EU; these are the rules of the game," she said.

On 3 September, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić attended the subject parade successful Beijing marking the 80th day of China's triumph implicit Japan successful World War II, alongside Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the lone caput of authorities from an EU and NATO subordinate authorities successful attendance.

But does this mean Belgrade is stepping distant from Brussels?

“I don’t deliberation so. Especially considering the People’s Republic of China, the EU highest officials besides visited Beijing,” said Brnabić. “The president of China, Xi, visited immoderate of the EU capitals. It’s not thing wherever ones has to take either or,” she explained.

Diversifying arsenal suppliers

Meanwhile, Serbia has worked hard to diversify its substantially renewed subject arsenal.

Belgrade remains 1 of a fistful of European countries that did not enforce sanctions against Russia, from which it has purchased weapons successful the past. At the aforesaid time, it pledged humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has been accused repeatedly by Moscow of providing Kyiv with materiel, prompting Serbia to enactment each arms exports connected pause.

Serbia besides purchased Rafale multi-role combatant jets from France and anti-aircraft rocket systems from China, among respective arms deals with antithetic suppliers successful caller years.

Diversifying the arms purchases from antithetic countries could make problems of method compatibility among limb systems wrong the aforesaid army, experts believe. 

On the different hand, sometimes arms acquisitions from antithetic sellers and antithetic sources are done arsenic a diplomatic “gesture of bully governmental volition towards” the exporting country, said Akrap.

It was made nationalist past August that Serbia concluded a method and commercialized practice statement for the worth of implicit €1 cardinal with the Israeli high-tech institution Elbit for the acquisition of Hermes 900 drones.

“We person to nutrient and import not lone systems, but technology. And this is important. The declaration with Elbit is besides astir importing blase technologies from Israel,” Lunić said.

Serbian authorities person announced that successful summation to the 19 caller limb systems connected show astatine Saturday's parade, 2 Rafales from the French Air Force volition beryllium patrolling the skies implicit Belgrade, arsenic Serbia awaits its ain French pitchy delivery.