Russia: Serbia still respects ban on exporting ammunition to dubious buyers

Photo: Pixabay/opsa

Serbia continues to respect the ban on exporting ammunition to "dubious partners" despite attempts to circumvent that ban, Director of the 2nd European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Yuri Pilipson has said, adding that Belgrade remains "undoubtedly and objectively" Moscow's strategic partner.

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"The ban on the export of ammunition introduced by the Serbian authorities is still in force, despite continuous attempts by unscrupulous clients to circumvent it," Pilipson said, when asked about Moscow's assessment of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaking about the possibility of selling ammunition "to Europe" - even in case of its subsequent delivery to Ukraine, although the Serbian side has repeatedly assured Moscow that it has an export control mechanism in place, Sputnik reported.

Pilipson reiterated that Serbia has repeatedly offered guarantees to Moscow about the existence of such a mechanism.

"We appreciate the principled stance of the Serbian leadership on this issue. We are carefully monitoring the situation and, if necessary, we make suggestions," said Pilipson.

He pointed out that despite the "destructive influence of the West", which is trying to "bypass bilateral cooperation at all costs, destroy trust and mutual understanding", Belgrade "undoubtedly and objectively" remains Moscow's strategic partner.

"Our dialogue with Belgrade remains open and constructive. We are focused on jointly overcoming the difficulties artificially created by those who wish us ill," said this official of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pilipson stressed that the intensive and multi-layered cooperation between Russian and Serbian partners continues, even under conditions of "often extremely strict sanctions".

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters - when asked to comment on Sputnik's report that Serbia continues to respect the ban on exporting ammunition to suspicious buyers in order not to support the war in Ukraine - that Serbia is "taking care" of its arms exports, and that it is good that they (Russian media) said that.

"When it comes to weapons and equipment, no one will ever be satisfied. We must live and work. I received letters from the defense industry trade union, our warehouses are full. We take care, we always take care - whether you can always control that 100%, that's impossible, but what has been pointed out to us, those end users pointed out to us by Moscow, we have acted correctly and such things do not happen anymore," said Vucic.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)