20.07.2023.
Communiqué
A delegation from Belgium’s Walloon Region visited our country from July 17 to 19 in order to verify the export of military equipment based on the permits Lachaussee Company had obtained from the regional administration. On that occasion, the foreign delegation concluded that the position of the Republic of Serbia regarding the ban on the export of products of the domestic defence industry to Russia and Ukraine during the armed conflict between those two countries was true and transparent.
During their visits to Belgrade and other cities in Serbia, the Walloon delegation was hosted by the Public Enterprise Yugoimport-SDPR, which gave the Belgian partners an insight into the procedures for the production and export of weapons and military equipment abroad. In this way, all false accusations and insinuations concerning the alleged export of production machines supplied to Serbian companies by the Belgian company, as well as weapons and ammunition produced using those machines, to the Russian Federation, whose sole purpose was to harm Serbia's foreign policy position and its international reputation, were dismissed.
For more than 150 years, the Serbian Defence Industry has been producing weapons and ammunition on production lines, including the machinery built by Lachaussee, for its own needs and for export around the world, in accordance with Serbia’s export regulations and international conventions.
The Ministry of Defence stresses that since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began, the Republic of Serbia has not concluded or carried out any contracts for the delivery of any kind of weapons or military equipment to either of the warring parties, and will stick to that position for as long as the armed conflict between the two countries continues. In accordance with regulations governing the export of weapons and military equipment, Serbia requires from all its buyers to provide an End User Certificate, certifying that the end user will not re-sell, re-export or trans-ship the goods to any other person or country without the written consent of the competent authority in the Republic of Serbia. Also, Serbia complies strictly with its obligations arising from the End User Certificates it has issued itself, so on this occasion the Walloon delegation was able to ascertain that all the machines delivered by the Belgian company were located in Serbia, i.e. they had not been exported.
