China has confirmed the deployment of its sophisticated HQ22 SAM (surfacetoair missile) air defense systems to Serbia, according to international media expectations that surfaced over the weekend, as part of bilateral “cooperation projects” that “have nothing to do with the current situation.” in Ukraine, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who assured that the fleet of six used Y20s “delivered regular military supplies,” adding during the daily briefing that “annual cooperation projects between China and Serbia were not addressed become third”.
The People’s Liberation Army “recently carried out the previously planned delivery”. Six Y20 transport planes, flying over the airspace of two NATO countries (Turkey and Bulgaria), landed on Saturday at Nikola Tesla civilian airport in Belgrade to carry missiles ordered in 2019 by Serbia, which has very close ties with Russia which the US advised against buying in 2020, warning that joining the EU or other western alliances would involve the use of defense systems of more uniform and western standards. The Chinesemade missiles, delivered amid the instability of the Balkans, are mostly compared to the American Patriots or the Russian S300, despite having a shorter range: 170 km at a height of 27 km. Serbia is the first European country to acquire such Chinese weapons. President Aleksandar Vucic’s government, just confirmed for a new mandate, voted in favor of UN resolutions condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine but decided not to support international sanctions against Moscow.
The “doubletongued Serbia of Aleksandar Vucic, a great friend and admirer of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Viktor Orban, is increasingly an anomaly in Europe and at the same time a cause for concern for the EU, with which Belgrade has been dealing for years in accession negotiations involved, a goal that has been defined as one of the priorities of its foreign policy. But the arrival of Chinese missiles in what the media has dubbed “secret” operation in a region riddled with chronic tensions and instability like the Balkans must draw simultaneous attention and concern in Western chancellery. Though on track for integration into the European Union, Serbia, Moscow’s key ally in the region, is the only European country receiving massive arms shipments from Russia and China, with the two giants keen to expand their investments in the Serbian Economy to increase and other countries in the region. As part of the Silk Road project and its plans to penetrate into the economic fabric of Europe, Xi Jinping’s China is making heavy investments in Serbia, especially in the industrial, mining and metallurgical sectors, as well as in infrastructure, especially in the project of a fast railway line between Belgrade and Budapest.