Experts raise the alarm for Serbia's arming: Threat for Kosovo, region

Experts raise the alarm for Serbia's arming: Threat for Kosovo, region

Dangerous for Kosovo and the region are seeing security experts see Serbia's bilateral game armed by the East and financed by the West.

Serbia's weapons supply from Russia and China, according to security expert Nuredin Ibishi, should serve as an alarm for Kosovo to establish military capacity, in hopes of entering Partnership for Peace this year.

Ibishi tells Kosovo that Serb maneuvered tendencies pose a permanent threat to Kosovo, but also to the region. He also warns of budget cuts to the KSF at a time when the Force is in implementation of a 10-year transition plan to become a military with full capacity.

This, the aspect of budget spending and bringing weapons to Serbia, shows that a permanent threat to countries in particular for Kosovo is being presented, as there are some remaining issues, the question of dialogue and others, and are conditioning it to a threatening form of possibility and intervention. But fate is that we have the international presence of security KFORI, NATO and UN Resolution 1244. But we need to be alert with the establishment of the capabilities of the Kosovo Security Force, which is in the phase of the three-year transition, and we must be extremely careful not to make budgetary cuts, but rather to seek partners or donors in order for the KSF to pass the transition phase, in hopes that next year it will enter the Partnership for Peace”, Ibishi says.

Serbia has spent over 1.1 billion euros, or 2.4 per cent of GDP on weapons supply. And that, according to Ibishi, is also disturbing Serbian citizens.

“In terms of budget 1.19 billion has spent or 2.4 per cent of GDP, which is a concern even for Serbian citizens, not only in terms of security for the countries of the region that Serbia has had this capacity of arms and with these sophisticated systems that are unknown, these missile systems and the possibility that soon to come even the systems that are S400s that have had a little demonstration in Serbia, so it is a permanent threat to the country or the delivery of these missiles affects all the countries in the region that actually pose a threat to security and not only the countries of Kosovo, he says.

And when talking about the potential risk posed by Serbia's weapons, Ibishi adds that the issue becomes more complicated as Serbia is supplied with weapons even from NATO.

The “has lost that balance in terms of forces, and Serbia has been misusing it by overindulgence on two sides, on one side in 2006 it has joined NATO's Partnership for Peace, and it holds the frozen status, is for partnership, but not also for NATO integration. The other issue is that she's arming all over. It is being armed with NATO standards as well as unstable from Russia, China and other countries, as is Belarus and Turkey”, he says.

But for security expert Agim Musliu, all these are Serbia's games.

According to him, Serbia uses Yugoslav tactics by arming itself from the east while taking money from the west as a means to ensure dominance in the Balkans.

“It has become a continuation of Yugoslav politics, armed by east but taken money and credit from the West, this game plays Serbia with both sides and both hands benefits. As for the armaments he took or bought on soft loans from Russia, which will cost a lot, I can say it's a weather-abated weapon, since the planes. MIK-29, who have been remodeled. But there are many shortcomings in use, in the interest of the Balkans, where I think it is dysfunctional because of the advancement of technology and the advancement of various combat tactics, which no longer respond to that aircraft guy. [...] 750 in the Balkans, Serbia has its own much more advanced, much stronger pandane, Croatia, which is exclusively armed by NATO. And Serbia will always play this game, which will be armed, will be the first force in the Balkans, and once it takes NATO down, and the whole world will decide: huh, let this be the strongest and will be the guardian of the Balkans as before. But no, it will not, because if Serbia is thinking to enter NATO or to co-operate in any form with NATO, it must meet NATO standards”, Musliu says.

Musliu comments on Kosova Preiss and the planes Russia forgave Serbia, which it says are only a fraud that the big brother “has committed to the latter.

The “is a trick of the older brother to Serbia, who has pardoned 6 planes and are only remodeled and arrived partially packed at Belgrade Airport. Then there have been many other problems, but we can conclude that they are dysfunctional in the future evental wars, which can occur in this part of Europe and in their history are decades old. As far as the other armaments of tanks are concerned, I can say they are decades old but rebuilt with several slightly more modern machine guns and another one with slightly more modern navigation, which can serve Serbia on the internal territory, but nothing more. And that all of this, when it is analysed, in addition to conventional weapons, that Serbia has the factory and it produces and exports (short and long infantry range), we can say that this is all a fraud and kind of pressure from Serbia to the Balkans”, he says.

Musliu says Serbia to enter NATO must meet all standards and not continue to buy extraordinary weapons from Russia.

Kosova Preress is also interested in learning the Kosovo Ministry of Foreign Affairs' position of influence on Kosovo's security the arms of Serbia from Russia and China, but the latter has not responded.