Agreement with Russia is important for Serbian army

BELGRADE - The agreement on technical cooperation between the armed forces of Serbia and Russia is very significant for the Serbian military as an umbrella agreement used in further talks, Serbia's Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Friday.

The agreement was signed on Thursday by Gasic and head of the Russian federal agency for technical military cooperation Alexander Vasilyevich Fomin. The presidents of the both countries attended the signing.

"Serbia has signed its first contract with the Russian Federation as an independent country," Gasic told Radio and Television of Serbia, pointing out that the agreement was the bases for all future forms of cooperation and negotiations regarding the modernisation of the Serbian Armed Forces and equipment and spare parts purchases.

He hopes that thanks to its reforms, Serbia will be able to take out the commodity loan it discussed with the Russian side in 2012 and will be able to buy new aircraft in 2016.

Serbia and Russia have had close military relations so far, but they can now be expanded to military education, healthcare and technical cooperation based on this agreement, Gasic noted.

It is extremely important that Serbia develop its defence industry and retake the place it belongs to it, because that branch can start the country's reindustrialisation, he pointed out.

The Serbian Armed Forces were reduced in size from 2000 to 2012, sold their equipment and property, and had that trend continued, this once respectable military force would have been reduced to a civil defence force, he stated.

The military has been growing stronger for the past two years, and it has been successful in its work on all three of its missions, maintaining...