Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump, had an "inspiring exchange of ideas" when they met on June 19 and toured Belgrade together.
Vucic said he showed Kushner the Serbian capital and explained some of the plans for the city’s “even faster growth.” He added in a post on Instagram that Kushner presented him with a project for a "magnificent hotel in Belgrade."
Serbia on May 15 signed a contract with Affinity Global Development, a company owned by Kushner, to redevelop a site in Belgrade formerly used by the Yugoslav military.
The site to be developed is located in the center of Belgrade and previously was home to the Yugoslav Federal Secretariat for National Defense. It was bombed twice in the spring of 1999 as part of NATO’s response to protect Albanians in Kosovo from ethnic cleansing by Serbian security forces.
Your browser doesn’t support HTML5
From Ruins To Real Estate: Jared Kushner Targets Former NATO Bombing Site In Belgrade
Vucic said on Instagram the development plans "will contribute to our capital becoming the center of this part of the world” and help Belgrade position itself as “an unmissable destination and desirable headquarters for the largest corporations, universities, and international institutions."
It also will be an inspiration for artists, scientists, and "above all young people from all over the world,” he said.
Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, disclosed plans in March to develop luxury projects in Belgrade and on Albania's Adriatic Sea coastline. Serbia leased his company the Belgrade site for 99 years.
According to The New York Times, the investment is worth $500 million. The newspaper said in an article in March that Trump expressed interest in developing the complex before he ran for president in 2016, but Kushner denied knowing about his father-in-law's prior interest in the site.
SEE ALSO: To Some In Belgrade, Serbia Risks Loss Of 'Crown Jewel' In Kushner DealThe contract calls for the construction of a memorial complex dedicated to the victims of the bombing in 1999. The 78-day NATO bombing campaign drove Serbian forces out of Kosovo, which later declared its independence from Belgrade.
Belgrade was a major target of the Western alliance’s warplanes during the attacks in 1999, and Serbian leaders eventually acceded to Western demands and retreated from Kosovo.
The NGO Fund of Humanitarian Law says that 756 people were killed in the NATO bombing campaign, 452 of them civilians and most of them in Kosovo. Serbia has said many more civilians were killed.
Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Goran Vesic, who signed the contract with Affinity Global Development, said the memorial complex will be financed by investors and owned by Serbia.