17.07.2022.
Minister Stefanović: The aircraft was transporting products made by Serbian defence industry to Bangladesh
According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Nebojša Stefanović, PhD, who has held a press conference at the Central Military Club today, the Antonov An-12 owned by a Ukrainian airline, which crashed yesterday in Greece, had taken off from the airport in Niš and had been transporting products made by the Serbian defence industry to the end user – the Ministry of Defence of Bangladesh.
- It was an Antonov An-12, owned by the Ukrainian "Meridian LLC" cargo airline, and was operated as Meridian Flight 3032 (MEM 3032). Unfortunately, according to the information available to us, all eight crew members were killed in the plane crash. The plane took off from Niš yesterday at around 8.40 P.M. local time and was transporting approximately 11.5 tonnes of products made by our defence industry to a Bangladeshi end user. The buyer, which was a fully authorized end user, was the Ministry of Defence of Bangladesh - said Minister Stefanović.Responding to journalists’ questions, he pointed out that none of the victims had been Serbian nationals.
- The flight route started in Niš, “technical landings” were planned at Amman, Riyadh and Ahmedabad before reaching the final destination in Dhaka. The cargo was owned by Serbian private company Valir. Therefore, the flight had all the proper permits, everything was in accordance with international regulations, and the buyer, the Ministry of Defence of Bangladesh, was an authorized end user. Unfortunately, some media, both foreign and local, started speculating yesterday and giving false information about this flight allegedly transporting weapons from Serbia to Ukraine, which is completely incorrect and malicious - Minister Stefanović said.
The Minister reminded that recently, disinformation had been deliberately disseminated, in an attempt to damage the reputation of the Republic of Serbia.
- About a month ago, there was misinformation that some sort of weapons was being transported to Ukraine. It turned out that it was a flight transporting a shipment from our defence industry to Algeria and, also, it had all the necessary permits. Then a similar thing happened on July 2, when a Ukrainian plane flying from the United Arab Emirates landed at the "Nikola Tesla" Airport. The Ilyushin-76 was transporting two combat vehicles from the UAE for the Yugoimport SDPR Company. Constant fabrications aiming to damage the reputation of the Republic of Serbia, allegations that we are doing something illegal, that we are violating international regulations, are both transparent and malicious. This is obviously being done with malicious intention of inflicting damage to the Republic of Serbia - Minister Stefanović said.According to him, large aircraft used to transport weapons and military equipment all over the world, were produced principally by the former Soviet Union, and are used by Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
- Russian and Belarusian aircraft are currently unable to transport weapons due to international sanctions, and Ukrainian planes cannot return and land in Ukraine due to the current situation in Ukraine, and for the most part, they are hired to transport these goods around the world. We are talking about Ukrainian cargo aircraft, that is, planes owned by companies that were founded in Ukraine, but the goods have nothing to do with Ukraine, nor are they delivered to Ukraine from Serbia. Serbia exports weapons only in accordance with international permits held by end users, and of course we will continue to do so in the coming period - Minister Stefanović said.
According to Minister Stefanović, last year, approvals were issued for the export of weapons worth over a billion dollars, and five hundred million dollars’ worth of weapons has been exported so far.
- We expect this export to grow this year, and in the coming years, we also expect an increase in our companies’ production capacity and greater exports to permitted end users all over the world. Domestic companies manufacturing weapons and military equipment employ around 22,000 people in Serbia. They are these people’s source of income, and besides, this money also goes to the budget of the Republic of Serbia through various taxes and profits. We think that this is a significant support for our GDP, i.e. for Serbia’s economy, and we will continue to work in accordance with the law as we have done so far, we will only export to those we are allowed to by international regulations and of course we will take care of the interests of the Republic of Serbia – said Minister Stefanović.