Croatia has officially expressed interest in being involved in the development of the Albanian military drone industry, in a new signal of strategic rapprochement between Zagreb and Tirana in the defense sector.
The statement came after the meeting held in Zagreb between Croatian Defense Minister Ivan Anusic and his Albanian counterpart Ermal Nufi, where cooperation in the military industry and modern defense technologies was among the main topics of discussion, according to official announcements from both sides.
In his statement after the meeting, Anusic gave the clearest signal yet about Croatian interest in the Albanian drone project.
“Albania is currently developing its drones with several foreign companies, but of course there is room for our companies there as well, because we are currently one of the leading countries within NATO in terms of production and distribution of FPV drones,” said Anusic, announcing an upcoming meeting between Albanian and Croatian defense companies.
The statement constitutes the first public confirmation that Zagreb is seeing concrete scope for involvement in the Albanian drone development project, moving beyond traditional political and diplomatic cooperation towards industrial and military coordination.
The development came on the same day that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić declared that Serbia is creating special units equipped with attack drones and loitering munitions, in a move he presented as part of the transformation of the Serbian military in the face of new security challenges in the Region.
Significantly, Belgrade is also following the same technological path. According to Reuters reports, Serbia is aiming to jointly produce combat drones with Israel through an industrial partnership with Israeli companies.
But Albania had started this course earlier. In January of this year, former Defense Minister Pirro Vengu confirmed that Albania had signed a 30 million euro contract with the Israeli company Elbit Systems for the supply and production of military drones and anti-drone systems, making public for the first time the country’s concrete entry into the advanced military technology production sector.
However, unlike European Union member states, Albania still remains outside the SAFE program, the 150 billion euro mechanism created by Brussels to rearm the continent and strengthen the European defense industry.
The European Commission approved in January the first funding package for eight member states, with Croatia benefiting from 1.7 billion euros under this instrument for defense investment.
This places Zagreb in a unique strategic position for the Region: as a direct beneficiary of European rearmament capital and as a connecting link between the Western Balkan countries and the EU defense industry.
Although Albania does not directly benefit from SAFE loans, Albanian authorities have made it clear that they aim to integrate into European supply chains through exports and industrial partnerships.
In this context, rapprochement with Croatia is increasingly seen as the pragmatic path through which Tirana can position itself in the new European defense architecture.
At a time when the Balkans are increasingly entering the military technology race, drones are becoming the symbol of a new phase of Regional rivalry – and Albania seems to have chosen not to be left out. (Euronews.al)