Serbian Minister Says Arms Export to Armenia had Approval from Authorities

• 07.22.2020, 19:19
•  Europe,  World,  Armenia

The Serbian weapons were exported to Armenia by a private company which had permits from four ministries and the country’s top civilian intelligence and security agency the BIA, Serbia’s outgoing Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said, N1 reports, Armenpress reports.

"Arms were exported to Armenia in 2020 by a private company, state-owned companies had no part in that. I can’t name the company but we know that it exported mainly rifles and pistols worth less than a million Euro in two shipments in May and June," Ljajic told the Nova.rs portal. He explained that the final export permit comes from the Trade Ministry but the Foreign, Internal Affairs and Defense Ministries have to give their approval first as well as the BIA.

He said there are no EU, US or Russian sanctions imposed on Armenia making it hard to refuse requests from that country.

On July 19 the Azerbaijani Haqqin.az reported that the Azerbaijani government has received an information according to which in the past months Serbia has exported large amounts of weapons, including mortars, to Armenia. After this report the Azerbaijani foreign ministry immediately summoned the Serbian Ambassador. Azerbaijani deputy foreign minister Khalaf Khalafov told the Serbian Ambassador that these media reports "question the cooperation and friendly relations between the two countries".