During his visit to the IDEX defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Serbian President Aleksander Vucic confirmed the increase in defense spending for Serbia: the 2023 budget thus provides for an amount of $1.5 billion, to which must be added an envelope that may include a maximum of $748 million more. The Serbian Armed Forces are looking to purchase new modern systems or modernize its assets, most of which were purchased from the Soviet Union or Russia; T-72MS, BRDM-2/2M, MiG-29, Mi-24/35M,... The various geopolitical constraints, international sanctions, etc. make the logistics of these systems very complicated, even too complicated! So much so that a purchase of new Russian aircraft 

During his visit to IDEX, the Serbian President also clarified that another additional 3 billion euros (or $3.2 billion) was being considered for the purchase of Rafale aircraft, if the discussions with Dassault Aviation will result in a contract (according to the GIFAS). As a reminder, on April 11, 2022, Vucic had announced that discussions were underway with Dassault Aviation to purchase 12 Rafales as well as a possible Eurofighter order (more info here).