It has been more than two years since the Chinese Hongqi-17AE anti-aircraft missile system arrived in Serbia, but Serbia has not been publicly exhibited. It is only recently that Serbia made a public appearance at the commemoration of the "Vidovdan Festival".
For any country, the exhibition of such heavy equipment is not just a simple matter of displaying its main equipment, and it is bound to have deterrent significance.
So what is the special meaning of Serbia now showing the Red Flag 17AE?
塞尔维亚现场展示的HQ-17AE
This question has to start with the recent situation in Serbia. To put it simply, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the entire West has not been very friendly to Serbia due to the traditional friendship between Serbia and Russia.
In particular, Germany, a large Western European country with political ambitions for the Balkans, has taken advantage of the Kosovo issue to frequently put pressure on Serbia, on the one hand trying to force Serbia to keep its distance from Russia, and on the other hand, it also wants to take advantage of Russia's inadvertent intention to provoke the Kosovo issue again.
In the face of such a situation in which NATO is aggressive and the separatists in the Kosovo region are taking advantage of the situation to loot, the Serbian government led by Vučić has been soft and firm, and has persistently defended the sovereignty of its own country and territory.
However, Serbia is a small country and a weak people, and in the face of pressure from Germany and even the entire NATO, Vučić can only barely cope with it. Fortunately, on a global scale, the great powers that are willing to support Serbia are not only Russia, but also China in the far east.
Serbian government officials speak at the exhibition
More than two years ago, against the backdrop of high tension in Kosovo, China decided to export Hongqi-17AE air defense missile systems to Serbia and directly use the Y-20 to deliver them to the door remotely, fully demonstrating China's support for Serbia.
However, after the Hongqi 17AE exported by China arrived in Serbia, it has only been heard and not seen. On the one hand, of course, this is because after the arrival of new weapons, it takes time to train and familiarize, but on the other hand, it is also because Serbia needs to make a brilliant appearance of the Red Flag 17AE at a critical moment.
To put it bluntly, you can't appear for the sake of appearing, and you have to help Serbia at a critical moment. Now, the time has come.
According to the information released on the official website of the Serbian Ministry of Defense, on June 28, local time, Serbia publicly displayed a series of main battle weapons and equipment at the "Vidovdan Day" commemorative event in Kruševac, the capital of Rasina Oblast, including the Hongqi 17AE short-range air defense system imported from China for the first time.
FK-3 in a live demonstration
This exhibition is of great strategic significance for Serbia. First of all, judging from the situation in the Balkan Peninsula itself, the separatist forces in Kosovo have frequently made trouble in the past two years, which is directly related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Whenever the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is tense, they like to make trouble.
On the one hand, this is because relations between Russia and Serbia have traditionally been relatively good, so the Kosovo authorities are trying to take advantage of the fact that Russia is now unable to take care of Serbia and seek complete independence.
On the other hand, it is because the more intense the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the more obvious the hostility between NATO and Russia, especially now that Russia occupies the initiative on the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine, if NATO can extend its tentacles to the Balkan Peninsula, it will be equivalent to directly posing a threat to Russia from the belly of Russia, which can greatly deter Russia and achieve NATO's strategic goal of isolating and blockading Russia.
Recently, due to the United States' assistance to Ukraine with tactical missile systems, Ukraine has used this weapon to attack civilians on the Crimean Peninsula, causing the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to escalate, and there is even a risk of spreading to the entire NATO.
The situation in Russia and Ukraine
In the event of a direct conflict between Russia and NATO, the situation in Serbia and Kosovo is likely to be rekindled. Based on this, the fact that Serbia is now displaying its advanced main equipment can be understood as a means to deter separatist forces and protect itself against the background of the deterioration of the security situation in Europe as a place of four wars and a place where soldiers must fight.
Second, the Balkans are known as the "powder keg of Europe" not only because of the differences between Russia and NATO, but also because geographically it is also Europe's land gateway to Western Asia.
The current situation in West Asia and the Middle East is already a mess, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has not yet been resolved, and a major fight between Israel and Lebanese Allah may break out at any time.
Once the Middle East is in turmoil, Serbia is also very likely to be implicated. According to TASS and other foreign media reports, on June 29, local time, the Israeli Embassy in Serbia was attacked, and a Serbian policeman was injured in an attack outside the Israeli Embassy.
Serbian President Vučić
Subsequently, Serbia's top leaders made it clear that "terrorist acts will not be tolerated", and President Vučić even went to the hospital later that day to visit the injured, and rarely left a heavy sentence, saying that "there will be no mercy to the terrorists."
Although it is said that the murderer is clearly going towards Israel. Later, Serbian police officers were injured and Israel announced the closure of its embassy in Serbia, which was considered to have pushed this risk down.
However, considering that Israel has previously provided Ukraine with Patriot missile systems, and Serbs are traditionally pro-Russian, this has to make one suspect that the attack on the Israeli embassy in Serbia may not only be a conflict in the Middle East, but also may involve the dissatisfaction of the Slavs with Israel's support for Ukraine.
In other words, the trend of the Middle East conflict spreading from Palestine and Israel to the periphery, and even to Europe, has become concrete in Serbia.
The Kosovo question
This is determined by the complex geopolitical situation of Serbia and its special geographical location, which is not subject to the will of those in power. From this point of view, Serbia now needs to emphasize the importance of security more than any other country in Europe.
At this time, the Serbian military showed the Red Flag 17AE system, not only to tell everyone that Serbia has advanced equipment, but also to pass on the support of such a big country as China.
In the final analysis, Serbia is in the "Balkan powder keg", and earlier than other countries, it perceives the risk of the current situation in Europe and even the Middle East getting out of control, so it has begun to show its own safety factor in advance.