|
Yugoslavia Military Exchanges
Yugoslavia conducted active military exchanges with a number
of countries, including the United States, the Soviet Union,
other NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, and several countries in
North Africa and the Middle East. Reciprocal military visits with
the United States were frequent in the late 1970s, a period of
intense United States concern about the direction of post-Tito
Yugoslavia. The United States secretary of defense visited
Yugoslavia in 1977 to discuss possible arms sales and training
for YPA officers in the United States. He and the Yugoslav
federal secretary for national defense exchanged visits the
following year. They discussed possible transfer of antitank,
antiship, and air-to-surface missiles, aircraft engines,
communications equipment, and an integrated naval air defense
system. Of these, only the sale of Maverick air-to-surface
missiles was completed. The chairman of the United States Joint
Chiefs of Staff visited Yugoslavia in 1979 and 1985, and the
secretary of defense returned there in 1982. These visits
included discussions of the general strategic situation in Europe
and the longstanding Yugoslav interest in buying advanced arms
from the United States.
Despite the Soviet Union's role as Yugoslavia's leading arms
supplier, relatively few high-level military exchanges occurred
between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. A 1988 visit by the
Soviet minister of defense to Belgrade was the first since 1976;
the Yugoslav federal secretary returned this visit in 1989. Both
visits featured discussion of increased military cooperation.
Yugoslavia had many contacts with countries in North Africa
and the Middle East, with special attention to Libya, Egypt, and
Ethiopia. Several high-level exchanges occurred with the Libyan
armed forces in the late 1970s and 1980s. As a result, Libya
purchased Yugoslav armored personnel carriers, small arms, patrol
boats, and ammunition as well as training for Libyan officers in
Yugoslavia. Egypt and Yugoslavia established a military
cooperation program in 1984. Reciprocal general staff visits in
1988 and 1989 elaborated the Yugoslav role in training Egyptian
soldiers and upgrading older Soviet arms and equipment in the
Egyptian inventory. In 1988 the federal secretary for national
defense visited Ethiopia to promote military-industrial
cooperation between the two countries.
Other significant military visits included reciprocal
exchanges of high-ranking officers with India in 1979 and 1984
and with Angola in 1979 and 1986. Like Yugoslavia, each of those
countries had large numbers of Soviet weapons systems that were
the stimulus for military cooperation. Angola also expressed
interest in Yugoslav aircraft and pilot training.
Data as of December 1990
|
