Arms Trade, Misuse of Funds, and “The Largest Illegal Construction in Europe”
AMO
/ Ed. 29. 1. 2025
Several deals between Serbia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were labeled as "deals of the century," but they turned out to be harmful to Serbia, while the actual profits—primarily in the trade of arms and military equipment—mostly remained hidden.
On February 17, 2013, Aleksandar Vučić, then the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, signed a “framework agreement” between Serbia and the UAE. This agreement outlined cooperation between the two countries in about ten different areas—security, military, media, judiciary, healthcare, agriculture, and others. At the same time, this agreement permanently shaped the appearance of Serbia’s capital city and allowed the “Arab friends” to carry out their projects in Serbia without regard for its laws. By signing the agreement, Vučić also endorsed a short Article 6, which effectively removed the Serbian state and its national legislation from all future projects and contracts that could be concluded under the “framework agreement.”
The negative impacts of some of these projects are still being discussed today, while many projects and promises worth several billion euros were never fulfilled. Meanwhile, quietly and behind the scenes, the arms trade from Serbia to the UAE flourished. This activity, although more valuable than all the “investments” the UAE brought to Serbia, remained in the shadows for years.
The article by Radmilo Marković was originaly published with the support of the project Enhancing the Capacities of Serbian Investigative Journalists in Mapping Foreign Influence in Serbia by Vreme. You can read the original version in Serbian here.
