21.02.2023.
President Vučić and Sheikh bin Zayed at “Yugoimport-SDPR“ stand
The President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited the "Yugoimport-SDPR" stand at Abu Dhabi’s International Defence Exhibition "IDEX 2023" today.
They were accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Miloš Vučević, who attended the meeting between President Vučić and Sheikh bin Zayed following the visit to the stand, alongside the delegation from the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces.President Vučić said he was proud that out of 1,350 stands at the defence exhibition, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had decided to visit and spend some time at the Serbian stand. According to him, it is a great honour for Serbia and a source of pride for the Serbian Defence Industry and every citizen of our country.
- We have also managed to bring some private companies who presented their weapons, i.e. development projects, which are currently at the Serbian Armed Forces’ Technical Test Centre. We have seen and learned a lot in this race for arms, equipment, for faster, stronger, better solutions. Now we are running in a race for drones and weapons for the destruction of drones and one must be price-conscious, anti drone weapons mustn’t be too expensive, and drones are getting cheaper and are produced in ever-growing quantities. That is why we devote a lot of attention to this matter. Within 48 hours, we will sign the first contract with the UAE for the purchase of their drones, and they will arrive at the territory of the Republic of Serbia very soon, President Vučić said.
As he explained, the drones in question are suicide drones and, hopefully, the Serbian Armed Forces will have their first suicide drones in the next five or six months.- It's a complex process, the military is not a toy, the procedures in the military are lengthy and when I say that those drones will become part of the Serbian Armed Forces’ armament, it means that we are nearing the end of all procedures. We will continue to work on drones and everything else. A challenging period is definitely ahead of us, said the President of the Republic.
President Vučić said that the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine would put Serbia in an even more awkward position in the political and military sense, and added that he expected influences from the West and other international factors.
- We have done everything we could here. We talked and had additional talks with our companies. They have to carry out major reforms, to introduce proper corporate management and to operate according to market principles; the armed forces will no longer purchase "Noras" for 200 thousand less, because in the end the state has to pay 400 thousand for them. President Vučić also said that the hosts of the defence exhibition were satisfied with the development projects presented to them by the Serbian side.
By tradition, "Yugoimport-SDPR" is taking part at this year's defence exhibition, which ranks among the worlds’ biggest and most important international arms fairs, alongside more than 1,350 companies from 65 countries, in order to showcase the latest weapons and military equipment that are part of the product range of the Serbian Defence Industry.The International Defence Exhibition "IDEX 2023" and the Naval Defence and Maritime Security Exhibition "NAVDEX 2023" showcase the latest defence innovations and technologies, along with the most advanced technology and equipment developed by defence industries around the world.
