Vulin: Serbia will conduct military exercises with China

 Aleksandar Vulin

 Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin said Serbia would not join NATO "until Aleksandar Vucic (president of Serbia) and this parliamentary majority are in charge of the country".

He warned that Serbia, for the first time, will have military exercises with China in the coming year.

"We are cooperating with NATO, but we are also cooperating with the countries of the former Soviet Union under the Collective Security Treaty. These countries do not require us to give up part of the territory," Vulin told the Serbian parliament.

He said that the military neutrality is "expensive" but there is no pressure to give up that policy because, as he added "you are not a free country if someone else takes care of your sky."

Serbia has conducted military exercises with Russia during October.

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vucic, has said he is impressed by what Russian land-air systems can do.

Serbia, which was bombed by NATO in 1999 over violence in Kosovo, opposes membership in the alliance.

Russia is also opposed to NATO enlargement with the Balkan countries.

In November the US Department of Defense issued a document saying that Serbia-Russia relations have been strengthened since Vucic came to power in 2012.