State Department: Serbia Should Beware of Risks of Doing Business with China

State Department (Flickr.com/ Photo by: U.S. Department of State (IIP Bureau)

Doing business with companies headquartered in China represented a sovereign decision, but the government should beware of short-term and long-term risks and prices, Voice of America (VoA) was told at the State Department on April 12 in relation to the information that Chinese military equipment had been delivered to Serbia.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has said that the U.S. cannot confirm China’s recent delivery to Serbia, which Beijing has described as usual military equipment, nor can he speculate about the influence on Russia or Ukraine.
 

Until the publishing of the article, the Serbian Defense Ministry had not responded to VoA question whether and what sort of equipment had been delivered to Serbia from China and whether Chinese military aircraft had been used for the delivery. The first information about the delivery appeared on April 9 on social networks, where users were publishing photos of larger aircraft flying over Serbia’s capital, according to VoA.

Associated Press has reported that Chinese military transport aircraft Y-20 have delivered to Serbia Chinese air defense missile system HQ – 22, under designation FK-3 for export, but the information has not been confirmed officially by either side.