Serbia’s Armed Forces have received four Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighter jets from Belarus, Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview with the Politika newspaper.

A Serbian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet
(Credit: Serbian Ministry of Defense)

"Under an agreement reached by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus has delivered the planes to us and we are very grateful for this," Vulin said.According to him, six MiG-29 fighters delivered by Russia and the four planes of the same type supplied by Belarus will allow the Serbian Air Force to form a squadron of 14 planes in the imminent future, which will give air supremacy to Belgrade in the region.

The Serbian defense minister said that he had met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu during a visit to Moscow in April to discuss the delivery of four Mil Mi-35 (Hind) combat and four Mi-17 (Hip) transport helicopters, T-72 tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles and air defense systems.

Russia delivered six MiG-29 fighter jets to Serbia in October 2017. The planes will be upgraded in three stages and the work will cost from 180 million euros ($220 million) to 230 million euros ($281 million).In addition to the MiG-29 planes, Serbia will receive 30 T-72 tanks and 30 BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance vehicles from Russia for free as part of military and technical assistance.

Besides, talks are in progress to discuss the purchase of Russian-made Buk-M1 (SA-11 Gadfly) and Buk-M2 (SA-17 Grizzly) air defense missile systems and Tunguska (SA-19 Grison) antiaircraft missile/gun systems.Earlier, Belarus announced its intention to hand over eight MiG-29 planes and two battalion sets of Buk air defense missile systems to Serbia in 2018, suggesting that Belgrade pay for their repair and upgrade.

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