Serbia has signed a contract with a company owned by the son-in-law of former U.S. President Donald Trump to redevelop a site in Belgrade formerly used by the Yugoslav Ministry of Defense that was bombed by NATO forces in 1999.
Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Goran Vesic signed the contract on May 15 with Affinity Global Development, which is owned by Jared Kushner, the husband of Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
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 on the night of April 29, 1999, and again on May 7-8, 1999, as part of NATO’s response to protect Albanians in Kosovo from ethnic cleansing by Serbian security forces.
"The government of Serbia has chosen a reputable American company as a partner in this venture, which will invest in the revitalization of the former Federal Secretariat for National Defense complex," said Vesic in a statement.
Kushner shared a proposed image of the project on X, formerly Twitter, in March along with some other proposals for buildings in the Balkans that he said his company was working on.
Vesic said that, when information appeared about the site being "revitalized," the contract had not yet been signed but said at the time that details would be released when it happened.
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.
The 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 Serbia.
The former Yugoslav Defense Ministry facility was bombed in 1999. (file photo)
Belgrade was a major target of the Western alliance’s warplanes during the attack, 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.
"The memorial complex will be financed by investors and will be owned by the Republic of Serbia, which will decide on the program content of the complex and manage it," said Vesic.
The design of the future memorial will be determined at an international architectural competition.
Asher Abehsera, general director of Affinity Global Development, said Serbian architects and designers will be invited to submit their ideas.
"In this way, reconstruction not only represents a fusion of Serbian and American innovation but also shows respect for domestic artistic expression,” said Abehsera. “Reconstruction does not only mean building buildings, but also building bridges between cultures, respecting the past, and creating the foundation for a prosperous future.”