Serbia proposes bringing back the draft as tensions rise in the Balkans

 


Jan 4, 2024. Posted by  Balkan Periscope - Hellas

 Serbia should reintroduce compulsory military service, the Serbian defense ministry said Thursday, as tensions continue to escalate in the Balkans, reported the American news agency Associated Press (AP).

The news agency quoted the ministry’s statement that the proposal for service of up to four months is made “in order to increase the defense capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces, through the rejuvenation and improvement in the training of the active and reserve forces.”

Serbia suspended mandatory military service in 2011 amid the push to professionalize the armed forces, but the country now appears close to bringing back the draft after a long campaign in favor of it, despite concerns that the government may struggle to foot the bill for such a massive recruitment, reported the AP.

Tensions have been high in the Balkans that went through bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, said the AP, adding that the tensions have revolved primarily around “Serbia’s former province of Kosovo which declared independence in 2008, something that Serbia and allies Russia and China do not recognize.”

Although formally neutral, the Serbian army has maintained close ties to Russia from where it has been purchasing most of its arms, including fighter jets and tanks, reported the American news agency.

It added that Serbia has also maintained cordial relations with NATO whose peacekeeping troops have been stationed in Kosovo since 1999 “when the Western military alliance intervened to stop Belgrade’s bloody crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists.”

Another volatile region is Bosnia “where a Bosnian Serb separatist leader (Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik) has been threatening to declare the Serb-controlled half of Bosnia independent and to unite it with neighboring Serbia,” reported the AP.

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