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SERBIAN MILITARY ANALYST FAULTS FOREIGN MINISTRY FOR ARMS BAN TO ARMENIA
Beta news agency, Belgrade, Serbia
8 Jan 2007
Belgrade, 8 January: Military analyst Zoran Dragisic said today that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs committed a "terrible gaffe" over
the problem of issuing a permit to export arms to the Caucasus region.
"I think that this is a very poor political assessment, but it is
important to figure out who is behind that assessment. (...) [as
received] That is a question for the minister of foreign affairs
(Vuk Draskovic)," Dragisic told the Beta news agency.
Dragisic, who is also a professor at the Security Faculty, added
that Russia's interests were misinterpreted, because that country
has nothing against arms being exported to Armenia.
"If Russia were opposed to that deal, I would understand the state
turning down a 2m dollars deal, because our relations with Russia
are worth much more than that. This way leaves the impression that we
are a Russian colony, a state that is not sovereign and obeys foreign
dictates," he said.
The Serbian defence industry exports arms, ammunition, and military
equipment worth some 300m dollars each year, whereas the former SFRY
[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] exported arms worth some
2.5bn dollars.
The arms exported to Caucasian countries are most often rifles,
automatic rifles, and 7.62-mm machine guns.
The latest domestically made automatic rifle, the M-21 with a NATO
calibre of 5.56 mm, is exported to Macedonia, African nations, and the
new Iraqi military and police forces, as well as to British private
security forces working in that country.
The domestic defence industry's most successful export product is
the Nora long-range self-propelled howitzer, which Serbia exports to
one Asian country and which beat out similar products of the French,
Swedish, Israeli, and South African military industries in competitive
bidding.
Beta news agency, Belgrade, Serbia
8 Jan 2007
Belgrade, 8 January: Military analyst Zoran Dragisic said today that
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs committed a "terrible gaffe" over
the problem of issuing a permit to export arms to the Caucasus region.
"I think that this is a very poor political assessment, but it is
important to figure out who is behind that assessment. (...) [as
received] That is a question for the minister of foreign affairs
(Vuk Draskovic)," Dragisic told the Beta news agency.
Dragisic, who is also a professor at the Security Faculty, added
that Russia's interests were misinterpreted, because that country
has nothing against arms being exported to Armenia.
"If Russia were opposed to that deal, I would understand the state
turning down a 2m dollars deal, because our relations with Russia
are worth much more than that. This way leaves the impression that we
are a Russian colony, a state that is not sovereign and obeys foreign
dictates," he said.
The Serbian defence industry exports arms, ammunition, and military
equipment worth some 300m dollars each year, whereas the former SFRY
[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] exported arms worth some
2.5bn dollars.
The arms exported to Caucasian countries are most often rifles,
automatic rifles, and 7.62-mm machine guns.
The latest domestically made automatic rifle, the M-21 with a NATO
calibre of 5.56 mm, is exported to Macedonia, African nations, and the
new Iraqi military and police forces, as well as to British private
security forces working in that country.
The domestic defence industry's most successful export product is
the Nora long-range self-propelled howitzer, which Serbia exports to
one Asian country and which beat out similar products of the French,
Swedish, Israeli, and South African military industries in competitive
bidding.