Serbia will not brook external interference regarding purchase of weapons from countries like Russia and China at “a bargain price,” President Aleksandar Vucic has said. Vucic was speaking at an arms fair that coincided with a two-day summit marking the 60th anniversary of the first conference of non-aligned nations in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. Vucic said that the summit and the arms fair’s timing was just “a coincidence.”

The Balkan country has sparked fears of conflict in the region with its recent military buildup, especially in wake of its contentious role in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

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He said Serbia was a “free and independent nation” that would make its own choices. “If anyone thinks that we should ask the US or the EU to decide about our weapons, let’s abolish our state,” Vucic said on Tuesday.

The country lately has armed itself mostly with Russian and Chinese warplanes, drones and anti-aircraft systems, reports Associated Press.

“We are a free country that wants to deter a potential aggression,” Vucic said. He said although Serbia was on the “road to the European Union, it wants cooperation with everyone.”

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Serbia has refused to align its foreign policies with European Union despite formally seeking a membership of the 27-nation bloc Western countries have been concerned over Serbia’s growing alliance with Russia to destabilise neighboring Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Serbia’s fellow Balkan rival Croatia is the last new member admitted into EU.

The non-aligned movement was founded 60 years ago as a counterbalance to the power wielded by the Soviet Union and the United States. It lost much of its its influence after the end of the Cold War.

Earlier this month, soldiers with a NATO-led peacekeeping mission were deployed at the Kosovo-Serbia border following a dispute between the two countries over vehicle license plates.