Serbia recently purchased Chinese CM-400AKG air-to-surface ballistic missiles for its air force, becoming the weapon's first European operator, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Thursday.

Serbia is striving to balance its partnership with NATO and aspirations to join the European Union with its centuries-old religious, ethnic and political alliance with Russia and strategic ties with China, a major investor.

"We have a significant number of those missiles, and we will have even more," Vucic said in a live broadcast by Serbia's state RTS TV, days after the first images of the missiles mounted on a Serbian plane leaked online.

Vucic said the Serbian air force had adapted its Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to carry the CM-400AKG.

Croatia - an EU and NATO member, and Serbia's foe during the wars of the 1990s - has criticised the missile purchase as a threat to regional stability, an attempt to alter the military balance, and a sign of a growing arms race in the Balkans.

The CM-400AKG, manufactured by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), is a supersonic air-to-surface ballistic missile. It can carry either a 150 kg (330 lb) blast warhead or a 200 kg (440 lb) penetrator warhead and has a range of up to 400 km (248 miles).

It saw its first combat use during the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict, when Pakistan's air force targeted an Indian S-400 air defence system.

Vucic declined to disclose the price Serbia paid for the missiles, saying only it received a "slight discount".

Serbia has allocated around 2.6% of its GDP for military expenditures this year.

In recent times, Serbia has purchased the FK-3 surface-to-air defence system - similar to Russia's S-300 or the U.S. Patriot system - and CH-92A combat drones from China, while at the same time buying 12 new Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault along with helicopters and cargo planes from Airbus.

-Aleksandar Vasovic/Reuters