lThe Rafale multi-role fighter jet, built by Dassault Aviation, is finally having the expected success abroad. It plays a major role in French arms exports, which have elevated France to second place in the world by export value, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, published in March. Far behind the United States, but now ahead of Russia.
Dassault Aviation’s order book is so full that the manufacturer is struggling to meet demand. The latest contract was announced with great fanfare on Thursday 29 August in Belgrade, where President Emmanuel Macron made the trip, abandoning for twenty-four hours his search for a prime minister, to attend the signing of the sale to Serbia of twelve Rafale aircraft, for an amount close to 3 billion euros.
If the commercial success of this operation, which has been in the making since the sale three years ago of another twelve models to Croatia, Serbia’s neighbour and regional rival, is undeniable, its diplomatic dimension is much more controversial. From the outset, the project was considered delicate, rightly so, because of Serbia’s ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, is not applying the sanctions decided by the Europeans against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine; unlike EU airlines, Air Serbia continues to fly to Moscow. Belgrade has also ordered combat helicopters and anti-aircraft defence batteries from Russia and China.
Nationalism and autocratic management
The Elysée defends precisely the opposite argument to justify the sale of the Rafale, which it considers a means of“connecting Serbia with Europe”rather than letting it drift into a grey zone that Moscow and Beijing are using to exert their influence. The acquisition of the Rafale to replace Serbia’s fleet of tired Russian Mig-29 aircraft marks a milestone “strategic change”, “historic and important”, the President of the Republic pleaded on Thursday; he is convinced that “the Rafale club”, in which Serbia joins Greece and Croatia, can on the contrary “participate in peace in Europe” and promote regional integration.
No one will question the benefit to France and Europe of equipping Serbian aviation with French rather than Russian (or even American) aircraft. Such a sale implies a long-term link with the producing country, for issues of training, maintenance and spare parts supply. But it is to be hoped that all precautions have been taken to ensure the protection of the technology and know-how involved in the Rafale in a country where Russian citizens have free rein and where Chinese and Russian air defence producers will be able to verify their leisure effectiveness.
Finally, the most powerful engine of Serbia’s integration into the European fold is not to be found under the cockpit of the Rafale, however efficient they may be. The main obstacles to this rapprochement are nationalism and the autocratic management of his country by President Aleksandar Vucic, who muzzles the press, mistreats his opponents and fuels unrest in Kosovo, whose independence he rejects. Unfortunately, President Macron did not say a word about all this on Thursday in Belgrade.
