Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić attended a presentation by Chinese company AGIBOT in Belgrade this week.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić plans to mass-produce humanoid robots with Chinese help for use in the police and army.
This was reported by the German magazine Focus, as quoted by BGNES. Vučić wants his country to become a European leader in the field of humanoids – robots that imitate humans in appearance and some functions.
The Serbian president took part in a presentation by the Chinese company AGIBOT in Belgrade this week. There he mentioned that Serbia could be the first country in Europe to mass-produce such robots and that it could showcase “thousands of robots” at the next military parade, the publication explains. “The robots that danced, made coffee, and greeted Vučić could be produced in Serbia as early as 2026.” Vučić said that it remains to be seen whether Serbia is capable of “attracting” such an investment.
He mentioned 8,000 new jobs in the artificial intelligence and robotics sector, 50 factories where robots will soon work alongside humans, data centers, and 600 megawatts of electricity, which is the size of a medium-sized city. “Human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have been warning against the weaponization of autonomous systems for years. They argue that systems that select and attack targets “without significant human control” could undermine international humanitarian law. Human Rights Watch is therefore calling for international rules or a ban on these “killer robots” before they are introduced.”
However, writing about Vučić’s idea of robots in the army, the German magazine points out that experts are “skeptical” about whether humanoid robots can be robust enough for missions in the near future.
BGNES recalls that China has significantly strengthened its influence in Serbia over the past decade through large-scale investments in infrastructure, energy, and technology. Belgrade is a key partner of Beijing in the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, and Chinese companies have built or acquired strategic facilities such as the steel plant in Smederevo, the copper complex in Bor, and key transport corridors, notably Corridor 10 on the Greece-North Macedonia-Serbia-Hungary route. Serbia and China maintain a so-called “comprehensive strategic partnership,” and Beijing is also a major supplier of video surveillance and security systems, which has drawn criticism from the EU and human rights organizations. | BGNES