The agreement, worth €138m, was signed on Saturday by Goran Vesic, Serbia’s construction and transport minister.

The project includes €70m for the station building and €40m for its bridge. Work is scheduled to begin early next year, with completion set for December 2026.

Vesic said the station would form a multimodal node. “This station will be integrated with the bus and tram networks, significantly enhancing the city’s transport system,” he said.

Li Ming, China’s ambassador to Serbia, added that the agreement was a “new highlight of Sino-Serbian friendship”, which would boost the country’s transport system and railway industry.

He said collaboration on infrastructure for the 2027 Belgrade Expo was another important area of partnership between the two states.

The station was designed by Milan Lojanica, the 85-year-old professor of architecture at the University of Belgrade.

The station will serve the district of New Belgrade, a planned financial centre along the lines of, but considerably older than, Canary Wharf in London and La Défense in Paris. It has a population of 210,000.