Serbia To Launch Chinese-Backed Robot Production

Serbia (GNP): Serbia will begin producing Chinese-backed humanoid robots next month, President Aleksandar Vučić announced on July 13, as Belgrade positions itself as a regional hub for advanced manufacturing and deepens its technology ties with China.

Vucic said production at a plant in the western town of Sabac would start by the end of August, following the finalisation of an agreement with the project’s investor. “I invite you to Sabac on August 22 or 29,” Vucic said during a visit to western Serbia, according to Beta news agency, adding that terms with the investor had now been settled.

The venture is a partnership between Chinese robotics firm Agibot and Chinese auto parts supplier Minth Group, which already runs manufacturing operations in Serbia. Its first phase covers the assembly of humanoid robots and the localisation of artificial intelligence data training, with production based in Sabac and the nearby town of Loznica.

Serbian officials have said the facilities are also expected to produce battery housings and develop software applications, with output eventually intended for export to European markets. The project forms part of Belgrade’s broader push to expand high-tech manufacturing and attract further Chinese investment into the country.

A Rally With Robots

The announcement follows a high-profile appearance by humanoid robots at a ruling-party rally in Belgrade on June 27, where two machines named Milutin and Dragutin, introduced by Vucic days earlier, performed a traditional Serbian folk dance on stage before a crowd the government put at roughly 207,000 people.

That rally, held under the slogan “Serbia One Family” and marked by a more than 500-metre national flag carried through the city centre, was also the setting for a separate and politically significant announcement: Vucic’s confirmation that he intends to resign as president within weeks to lead his party into early parliamentary elections under a new list called “United Serbia.”

“I will be president for a few more weeks, then I will resign,” Vucic told supporters at the time, describing it as probably the last occasion he would address such a large crowd as head of state.

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Serbia’s President Political Backdrop

Vučić’s decision to step down comes after 14 years at the top of Serbian politics and roughly 18 months of sustained student-led protests that have posed the most serious challenge yet to his authority. Under Serbia’s constitution, a sitting president cannot hold party office, so his resignation would clear the way for him to campaign openly as the face of the ruling SNS, most likely as its candidate for prime minister.

Opinion polling cited around the time of the rally suggested the SNS would remain the largest party in any new election but could lose the outright parliamentary majority it has held for years, with a student-backed electoral list seen as a likely second-place finisher.

Taken together, the robot rollout and the rally that first introduced it point to a government using a single high-tech showcase to serve two purposes at once: presenting an image of economic modernisation ahead of a tightly contested election, while also signalling continuity of Belgrade’s economic relationship with Beijing at a moment of domestic political uncertainty.