What is Serbia trying to achieve with its military buildup?

Government calls for a ‘Serb World’ amid increased defence spending fuel concerns in neighbouring countries.

In 2019, Serbia made headlines by overtaking NATO member Croatia as the Balkan region’s biggest military spender, spending $1.14bn, an increase of 43 percent from the previous year.

This year, Serbia’s defence budget almost doubled from the 2018 figure of $700m to about $1.5bn, according to open-source intelligence specialists at Janes Defence Budgets.

As the pandemic intensified last year, many Serbians questioned the country’s priorities when it was reported in November that more money was being spent on weapons than setting up COVID-19 hospitals.