MOSCOW, January 4. /TASS/. Serbia’s security in many respects relies on Russia’s response to threats to that country, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday, commenting on the statement of Adm. Robert Burke, Commander Allied Joint Force Command Naples/Commander U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, about that country’s defense capabilities.
"I would like to remind Burke and all his colleagues in NATO misfortune of two important facts. Over the last, probably, two hundred years, Serbia’s defenses has largely depended on how promptly Russia will respond to external threats to that South Slavic country," she wrote on her Telegram channel.
"External threats to Serbia. By a weird coincidence, all those who have attacked Serbia are now NATO members. If Burke knows history, his statement welcomes Russia’s arms deliveries to Serbia, for instance the Kornet anti-tank systems, and he hopes very much that they will cool down the fervor of the Alliance’s hotheads who are muddying the waters in the Balkans. It is worse, but more familiar, if he doesn’t know it," Zakharova added.
Earlier, Burke said in an interview with the Serbian daily tabloid Kurir that NATO welcomes the reforms being carried out by Serbia to bolster its defenses.