By early 1990, the government of Yugoslavia had conducted several discussions with various countries, aiming to open up negotiations to jointly develop the fledgling fighter aircraft. While the nation had already announced that, in principle, it would proceed with production of the Avion, it sought outside partners to share the aircraft's considerable development cost.[4] However, these aspirations for extensive multinational collaboration were often complicated by political factors, which were typically dominated by scepticism. During 1990, Flight International wrote of Yugoslavia's partnership efforts: "For this to become a realistic hope, let alone a possibility, will require political change beyond anything already seen in Eastern Europe. Western companies wanting to work with Jugoslavia on Novi Avion had been warned by their governments to exercise care lest technology end up in the wrong hands".[7]