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Serbia has purchased 11 Russian-made Mi-35 military helicopters from Cyprus as part of the country's defense budget.
"Serbia is seeking to strengthen its air force and remain a dominant military force in the region," the country's president Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday.
The Cypriot government and Serbia agreed in 2021 to buy old Mi-35 helicopters in need of repair. The purchase price was not disclosed, but part of it was compensated by Belgrade by exporting Serbian-made weapons.
"We paid more than half of their value to our Cypriot brothers with our weapons, mostly artillery," Vucic told reporters during a presentation at the Batagnica air base near Belgrade.
He also announced the sale of 48 Serbian-made self-propelled howitzers worth 311 million euros, but did not provide any information about which country bought them. "The process still needs to be approved by the parliament," said Vucic.
EU candidate Serbia, which has one of the largest armies in the Western Balkans, still relies on ex-Soviet military technology, but in recent years has begun buying Western and Chinese weapons systems and aircraft.
In June, Vucic reported that Belgrade was in talks to buy Rafale fighter jets from the French company Dassault. Serbia has already bought helicopters from Airbus and transport planes.
Serbia is militarily neutral, but participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace, a program for countries that do not aspire to join the alliance.
Belgrade has scaled back military cooperation with Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine and has condemned the invasion. However, unlike the European Union and other Western countries, it has not imposed sanctions on Moscow.
Serbia's defense budget is $1.43 billion, or 2% of GDP, at the limit recommended by NATO.
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