Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that with the further arming of the Kosovo Security Forces from NATO countries, the aim is not only to remove the traces of Serbia in Kosovo, but also to remove the Serbs from there.
He made these comments during a visit to the Military Security Agency, a few days after the US State Department approved the possible sale of Javelin missiles to Kosovo, with a value of 75 million dollars.
The Serbian president, who warned that his country will spend about 740 million euros this year alone for the purchase of military equipment and armaments, said that Serbia must understand what is happening around it and must maintain peace, stability and strengthen the army.
“We know that America is leading with all this. This is what the great experts are doing. They (Kosovo Security Force) will be mentally, physically and organizationally very ready. The Americans and NATO are doing this in an extremely serious and responsible way. They are doing this and will form extremely powerful forces, just as they have formed in Croatia and other countries”, said the Serbian president.
On Thursday, the US Department of State said that Kosovo has requested the purchase of 24 systems and 246 Javelin FGM-148F missiles.
This sale will also include the logistical elements of their training and use, and the total value is estimated to be $75 million.
“This proposed sale would support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a European partner who is an important force for political and economic stability in Europe,” the Department of Defense said in a statement. State.
Now the request goes to the US Congress which examines the sale of arms to foreign countries.
“The proposed sale will improve Kosovo’s long-term defense capacity to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity while meeting its national defense needs,” the announcement of the defense and security cooperation agency said.
According to the announcement, the proposed sale of the Javelin systems will not change the military balance in the region.
Serbian President Vucic said that the arming of Kosovo is happening in violation of United Nations resolution 1244.
“The destruction of the international order with the further arming of the so-called Kosovo Security Forces… is happening almost every day by several countries, primarily Turkey, but also other NATO countries, as we have seen yesterday, Croatia and other countries, aims to, contrary to UN Resolution 1244, not only to completely remove any trace of the existence of Serbia from the territory of Kosovo, but also to remove the Serbian people”, he said.
He said that Kosovo has the fastest growing budget for the army and the police, two sectors that, according to him, cannot exist.
He said that the Serbian Army will continue to arm itself, but according to him, Serbia’s opportunities are small compared to superpowers such as the United States, Turkey, and other countries.
In December 2018, the Parliament of Kosovo approved the law for the transformation of the Security Force into the Kosovo Army, a process that will last 10 years and will not replace the NATO forces that continue to have about 5 thousand peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, several hundred of whom are Americans./VOA
