00:00Belgrade is to celebrate the day of Serbian unity this Saturday. The Serbian army rehearses what
00:11it's expected to become the biggest military parade in the Western Balkans since the time
00:15of Tito's Yugoslavia. Serbia will show its renovated military power, however the Balkan
00:21countries and the EU will look at Belgrade's military demonstration with some unease.
00:25Especially considering the cordial relations displayed recently by President Vucic with
00:32both China and Russia. The Serbian parliament speaker rejects the security concerns from the
00:38region towards her country. We know that our strategic priority as a country is the European
00:47integration into the European Union and I do not see this as competing interests. The rules of the
00:51game if you look at the European integration is that any accession country should gradually align
01:00its common foreign security policy with that of the EU. While awaiting EU accession and without a NATO
01:07accession perspective, Serbia has opted out for a de facto neutrality and is diversifying the arms
01:11purchases from China, France and Israel like the cutting-edge drone Hermes 900. Serbia has signed
01:17a 1.5 billion euros agreement with Israel to import manufactured products and high technology while
01:23Belgrade has been supplying Israel with ammunition made in Serbia. This diversification could generate
01:29problems for weaponry interoperability. When you are buying from different sellers, different countries,
01:37from different let's say political groups, then it's hard to do it because they are buying weapons
01:43as a gesture of the political will to this country. So it will be great to see it in Serbia how it looks
01:51like and how it is compatible with those purchases and the way how they develop their armed forces.
01:59Serbia and Croatia appear to have engaged in a regional smaller scale arms race.
02:05Croatia, a member of the EU and NATO, organized a large military parade in Zagreb in July where it displayed
02:11its recently acquired weapons, all of which are compatible with NATO standards.
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