Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Serbia Is Not Exporting Arms to Myanmar

Serbian weapons

The Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that Serbia is not exporting weapons to Myanmar and that the decision to halt potential shipments of arms and military equipment to that country was made in March of last year.

In a Feb. 22 statement, issued in response to claims by U.N. Special Envoy for Myanmar Thomas Andrews that Serbia was one of the countries supplying Myanmar's current government with weapons, the Serbian ministry of the exterior said it blocked multiple requests for the delivery of armaments to Myanmar, including newer applications to export weapons and military equipment.

The press release further stated that, following the Myanmar coup, Serbia had carefully analyzed the country's changed circumstances and, in March of 2021, decided to freeze all arms shipments to Myanmar, including existing and new contracts. "The special envoy's report, which includes assertions regarding Serbia's role in providing the Myanmar Army with weapons, is mostly based on speculations and unnamed sources, and not on internationally verified facts," the ministry said.

Serbia believes it has breached none of the international conventions it has signed, nor any generally accepted international laws, the statement added, stressing Serbia's transparency in fulfilling all its international obligations regarding trading arms and military equipment.

The Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), however, have reported that Serbia exported missiles worth EUR4.7 million to Myanmar only days after the coup which started a civil war in the country. According to Serbian Ministry of Trade and Tourism documents, a total of 2,524 80-millimeter-caliber rockets were exported from Serbia to Myanmar in two shipments, in January and February of last year.

The first shipment, comprising 880 missiles, left Serbia on Jan. 23, a week before the Myanmar Army took control of the country. The follow-up shipment of 1,664 rockets was green-lit on Feb. 8, seven days after the coup that plunged the country into violence, the media watchdogs claim.