Gasic: Saturday's parade to be display of modern, well-organised Serbian Armed Forces

BELGRADE- Serbian Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Wednesday Serbia would be proud of what was to be displayed at Saturday's Strength of Unity 2025 military parade, and noted that the people of Serbia and the world would be able to see a modern, well-organised Serbian Armed Forces that had not existed before 2012.

Speaking to K1 TV, Gasic said preparations for the parade and the event itself involved more than 10,000 troops, including 6,000 in infantry and motorised echelons, with the remaining troops providing logistical support.

He said military police would be securing the entire route of the parade and that all utility companies in Belgrade and the police were taking part in the preparations.

"The Serbian Armed Forces would not have been able to do all that on their own, we are all a big team so that the entire world can see a modern, well-organised Serbia on Saturday," Gasic said.

Explaining the reasons for the parade, Gasic said an important national holiday, the Day of Serbian Unity, Freedom and National Flag, had been marked in the past week and that a decision had been made in January to hold the parade on September 20 as the culmination of celebrations, as well as a display of the army's capabilities.

"At the last parade in 2014, Serbia could not display all that it has today, after ten years of very intensive, planned investments in the Serbian Armed Forces and new equipment. In the past ten years, many things have changed both on the global political scene and the military scene, so the Serbian Armed Forces have worked very intensively in the past ten years," Gasic said.