Global consequences of the coronavirus pandemic will make the investment in the Army of Serbia significantly harder, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday, adding that the Army of Serbia is being strengthened not to initiate conflicts but to “repel aggressors.”

Some 2,800 members of the Serbian Air Force and Air Defence, Land Forces, the 72nd Brigade for Special Operations and the 63rd Paratrooper Brigade took part in the ‘Sadejstvo 2020’ exercise at the ‘Pester’ military training ground, as well as more than 150 combat and non-combat vehicles, combat systems and 40 aircraft.

The participants demonstrated the operation of destroying the enemy planes with newly acquired air missile system ‘Pancir’ as well as an action of the ‘MiG-19’, ‘Eagle’ and ‘Super Seagull G-4’ aircraft, and the Mi-35, Mi-17V5, Mi-8, and Gama helicopters. 

“The pandemic is lasting longer than anyone in the world expected. All this with the vaccine is taking too long, and that's the only way to stop the pandemic. The numbers in Europe and the region are growing bigger, they are better here than elsewhere but we're not happy,” said Vucic, attending the exercise.

Addressing media, the President stressed that the exercise was not aimed against anyone and that the Army of Serbia equally belongs to everyone who lives in the country.

“This is their army. It helped during the most difficult times of the pandemic and kept their houses safe. The Army of Serbia equally belongs to Bosniaks, Serbs and Hungarians,” he added.