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Agreement with Vučić for the planes, "Le Monde" does not spare Macron: Arming an autocrat and philorus!

2024-08-31 15:46:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
Agreement with Vu?i? for the planes, "Le Monde" does not spare
Emmanuel Macron. Aleksandar Vucic

The well-known French media, "Le Monde", has devoted a long article to the bargain between Macron and Vucic for the purchase of 12 Rafale aircraft. According to her, Paris is handing over technology to a philanderer and an autocrat like Vucic, who incites unrest in Kosovo...

The Rafale multi-role fighter jet, built by Dassault Aviation, is finally getting the success it was waiting for abroad. It weighs heavily on French arms exports, which have elevated France to second place worldwide in terms of export value, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, published in March.

Dassault Aviation's order book is so full that the manufacturer is struggling to meet demand. The latest contract was announced with great fanfare on Thursday 29 August in Belgrade, where President Emmanuel Macron had traveled. He abandoned his search for a prime minister for 24 hours to attend the signing of the sale to Serbia of 12 Rafales, for an amount approaching 3 billion euros.

While the commercial success of this operation – which has been ongoing since the sale of 12 more models three years ago to Croatia, Serbia's neighbor and regional rival – is undeniable, its diplomatic dimension is much more controversial. . From the beginning, the project has been considered sensitive, and rightly so, because of Serbia's ties to Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Serbia, a candidate for membership in the European Union (EU), does not implement the sanctions imposed by the Europeans on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine. Unlike EU airlines, Air Serbia continues to fly to Moscow. Belgrade has also ordered combat helicopters and air defense batteries from Russia and China.

Agreement with Vu?i? for the planes, "Le Monde" does not spare
Rafaele plane

Necessary precautions

The Elysee is defending exactly the opposite argument to justify the sale of the Rafale, which it sees as a means of "anchoring Serbia in Europe", rather than letting it pass through a gray area that Moscow and Beijing are using to exert their influence. The purchase of Rafales to replace Serbia's fleet of tired Russian MiG-29 jets marks a "strategic change", "historic and important", the French president pleaded. He is convinced that the "Rafale club", in which Serbia joins Greece and Croatia, can, on the contrary, "contribute to peace in Europe" and promote regional integration.

No one will dispute the benefits to France and Europe of equipping the Serbian air force with French rather than Russian – or even American – aircraft. Such a sale implies an extended relationship with the country of manufacture, in terms of training, maintenance and supply of spare parts. But we must hope that all precautions are taken to guarantee the protection of the technology and know-how contained in the Rafale, in a country where Russian citizens are free and where Chinese and Russian air defense manufacturers will be able to study planes up close.

Finally, the most powerful driving force for Serbia's integration into the European fold is not to be found under the cockpit of Rafales, however capable they may be. The main obstacles to this rapprochement are nationalism and the autocratic leadership of his country by President Aleksandar Vucic, who has grabbed the press by the throat, mistreated opponents and incited unrest in Kosovo, whose independence he rejects. Unfortunately, President Macron had nothing to say about all this on Thursday in Belgrade. /CNA





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