French President Emmanuel Macron is heading to Serbia in the hope of selling Rafale fighter jets to its president, Aleksandar Vučić, despite Belgrade’s close relationship with Moscow.
Macron hopes to return from Serbia with good news on Friday. The meeting could end with the signing of a €3bn contract between Paris and Belgrade for the sale of 12 Rafale fighter jets. The Élysée stated on Wednesday:
We hope to see these discussions come to a successful conclusion. Serbia is making a strategic choice to cooperate with a European country [to modernise its army].
The successful sale will be another major success for Dassault Aviation in the Balkans, following the sale of 12 pre-owned Rafale aircraft to Croatia for €1bn in 2021.
Serbia has been an official candidate for European integration since 2013, but in its 2023 report, the European Commission described Belgrade’s progress in fighting corruption and organised crime as “limited.” Despite accusations of alleged press harassment, Vučić has governed the country since 2012.
Strategic centre
Belgrade has effectively regained the strategic centre it lost after the collapse of Yugoslavia. On 19 July, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the CEO of Mercedes travelled to Belgrade to attend the signing of a partnership agreement between Serbia and the EU. The partnership envisages the development of a process to extract minerals from ore and the establishment of an electric battery factory in Serbia.
For years, the people of Serbia have been fighting against Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto‘s opening of a mine in the Jadar valley in the south-west of the country. According to Vučić, the mine will be able to produce 58,000 tonnes of lithium a year, enough to supply “17% of Europe’s annual production of electric vehicles.”
Demonstrations resumed in mid-summer and gathered tens of thousands of people in Belgrade in early August. Determined to continue the struggle, the Federation of Environmental Associations of Serbia sent an open letter to Macron on 28 August asking him to support the environmentalists.
