Serbia Holds First Direct Military Drills With NATO Near Bujanovac
The two-week drills started on May 12, 2026, involving about 600 troops from four countries under NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. Photographs released Tuesday showed Serbian and NATO soldiers standing side by side with armoured vehicles at a training ground in southern Serbia. The exercise comes less than 30 years after NATO bombed Belgrade during the Kosovo war.
Al JazeeraSerbia and NATO launched their first-ever joint military exercise on Tuesday, 12 May 2026. The two-week-long drills run until 23 May 2026 and involve about 600 troops from Serbia, Italy, Romania and Turkiye. Military planners and observers from France, Germany, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkiye, the United Kingdom and the United States participated.
Photographs released on 12 May 2026 showed Serbian and NATO soldiers standing side by side at a military training ground near Bujanovac in southern Serbia. Armoured vehicles from both Serbian and NATO forces were present at the training ground near Bujanovac. The images marked a striking visual of cooperation between forces whose capitals were at war less than three decades ago.
The tactical exercise falls under NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. Serbia has been part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme for nearly 20 years. This marks the first exercise conducted directly with the NATO alliance.
The cooperation is aimed at preserving peace and stability in the region, Serbia’s Ministry of Defence said. “The planning of this exercise has been an important part of this joint endeavour. Both NATO and the Serbian Armed Forces have a long track record of major international exercise planning, so the teams were able to collaborate and deliver in a seamless way, sharing ideas and experience,” Royal Navy Commander Ian Kewley said.
A NATO official told AFP that the exercise is conducted in full respect of Serbia’s stated policy of military neutrality. Serbia maintains a policy of military neutrality while balancing relations with NATO members, Russia and China. The country has bolstered its military capabilities over the past 10 years, buying arms from NATO member countries, Russia and China.
NATO remains a sensitive subject in Serbia following the alliance’s 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war. The two-week-long drills come less than 30 years after NATO bombed Belgrade in the Kosovo war. A NATO-led peacekeeping force has been stationed in Kosovo since the 1999 war ended, and Serbia has never recognised its former province’s declaration of independence.
The NATO Summit took place on June 25, 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands. Al Jazeera reported that the drills represent a landmark step for a country that is one of the few in the Balkans outside the alliance. Serbia regularly participates in drills with NATO members but had not previously conducted an exercise directly with the alliance itself.
