BELGRADE, Serbia: The first joint NATO-Serbia military exercises are under way in the Balkan country, the defence ministry said Tuesday (May 12), marking a significant cooperation with a country the Alliance once bombed.
Around 600 troops from Serbia, Italy, Romania and Türkiye are taking part in the “NATO-Serbia” exercise, alongside military planners and observers from several Alliance countries, the ministry said.
It is the first military exercise conducted directly with NATO, which remains a sensitive subject in Serbia following the Alliance’s 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war.
Photographs released Tuesday showed Serbian and NATO soldiers now standing side by side at a military training ground near Bujanovac in southern Serbia, alongside armoured vehicles from both forces.
The tactical exercise will run until May 23 under NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme, which Belgrade said “respects Serbia’s military neutrality”.
“The cooperation is aimed at preserving peace and stability in the region,” the ministry said.
Serbia is one of the few Balkan countries not in the Alliance, with Belgrade insisting on a long-held policy of neutrality while enjoying close ties with both NATO and Russia.
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