BELGRADE, March 13. /TASS/. Serbia will remain a military neutral state and will not join NATO, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who is running for a second term, said at the election rally of the Serbian Progressive Party in Backa Palanka on Sunday.

"Someone says: "Never say never, maybe we will join NATO someday." But I say: we don't need to join NATO. I think Serbia should remain militarily neutral, protect its military neutrality and develop its army," the Serbian President said.

Vucic noted that during his tenure as president, unlike his rivals in the presidential race, he did not destroy the Serbian army, but strengthened it.

"We are strengthening our army in order to defend our sky, our land, ourselves and never depend on anyone except our people. This is our policy," he stressed.

In the early 2000s, the then pro-Western leadership of Serbia stated that the armament of the army was outdated and unpromising. As part of the reform of the defense system, it was decided to sell military training grounds, barracks and other facilities, and send armored vehicles for remelting. Armored troops (the main tank - T-55) were melted down for several years at the Serbian metallurgical plant Zhelezara Smederevo, which was bought by the American company US Steel. After melting down Serbian armored vehicles, US Steel sold the now-unprofitable steel mill to the Serbian government in January 2012 for the symbolic sum of $1.

In addition, according to the document of the Serbian Defense Ministry dated December 5, 2017, in 2005 it was decided to sell 200 T-55 tanks, 121 M60 armored personnel carriers, 77 M36 self-propelled guns, 88 M38 howitzers (122 mm), 36 anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery installations ZSU-57-2. The sale was carried out after the weapons were registered as secondary raw materials, the document says. Also in 2003, 2005 and 2008, it was decided to destroy 9,218 9M32M (Strela-2) anti-tank missiles and 420 launchers for the Strela-2 system. In 2003, they disposed of 23,000 small arms and 91 guns of 20 mm and 30 mm caliber.

The disposal of weapons was carried out in cooperation with the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency.