Serbia Receives Four MiG-29 Fighter Jets From Belarus

Serbia’s army has taken delivery of four MiG-29 fighter jets from Belarus, joining six others delivered in October last year.

"Under an agreement between Serbian President Alexandar Vucic and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus has given us fighter jets and we are very thankful to it for that," Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview with the Serbian Politika daily on Sunday.

Minister Vulin added that this delivery makes up the fleet of 14 MiG-29 fighter jets under Serbian Army, thanks to the supplies of six MiG-29 fighter jets from Russia and four such warplanes from Belarus.

The Serbia defense minister said that while visiting Moscow in April he had had talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu on supplies of four Mi-35 combat helicopters, four Mi-17 transport helicopters, T-72 tanks, BMP-2 armored infantry carriers and missile defense systems.

Now the warplanes are to be modernized in three stages. The country plans to spend a sum from 180 million to 230 million euro for these purposes. Along with MiG-29 fighter jets, Russia’s assistance to Serbia will include 30 T-72 tanks and 30 BRDM-2 combat patrol vehicles. Apart from that, the sides are discussing supplies of Buk-M1 and Buk-M2 missile systems and Tunguska surface-to-air gun and missile systems. Earlier, Belarus announced its plans to hand over to Serbia in 2018 eight MiG-29 fighter jets and two Buk missile systems on condition that Belgrade pays for their repairs.