BELGRADE, November 24. / TASS /. Serbia and Russia keep their military-technical cooperation at a good level, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in his nationwide address on Wednesday.

“Yes, we have good military-technical cooperation with the Russian Federation and we also cooperate with France. At the beginning of December we will hold a meeting of all senior officers on basic documents for the army and show, in a manner very transparent, which we do for the military. Yes, we invest a lot in defense because we can afford it and our economy is strengthening. We would have been easy prey if we had not done so “, said the Serbian leader.

Russia had previously handed over 30 T-72MS tanks and 30 BRDM-2MS armored personnel carriers worth € 75 million to Serbia. Vucic also said the first batch of Kornet anti-tank missile systems will arrive in Serbia from Russia by the end of the year.

From 2018 to February 2020, Russia handed over to Serbia four Russian-made Mi-35M helicopters, six MiG-29 fighter jets, ten BRDM-2 armored reconnaissance and patrol vehicles, three Mi-17V transport helicopters. 5, as well as Pantsyr- S1 air defense missile / gun systems as part of its military and technical assistance to the Balkan countries.

As then-Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin told TASS earlier, the combat potential of the republic’s army had significantly increased thanks to Belgrade’s military and technical cooperation with Moscow.

On November 25, the seaside resort of Sochi on the Black Sea will be the venue for scheduled talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic who will arrive in Russia for a visit.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the two leaders would focus on issues of mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation in their negotiations. The Russian presidential spokesman stressed that these would be very important talks with Russia’s “ally and friend”.