12.08.2017.
Confirmation of Friendship and Continuation of the Cooperation
Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin met today the Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoygu at training site Alabino near Moscow, where, upon the invitation of his Russian colleague, he is attending the final part and official closing of this year’s “International Military Games”.
- I wish to thank the Russian Federation for the manner in which the delegation of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces has been received and for the way in which our soldiers have been treated during the entire time of their stay in the “Tank Biathlon”. Minister Shoygu is a man who sincerely loves Serbian and who is our friend. Our two countries understand, respect and aid each other, and I have taken the opportunity to thank him once again for the principled position of the Russian Federation when it comes to the relation towards Kosovo and Metohija and to ask him at the same time that such policy continues in the future. I conveyed personal regards of the Supreme Commander and the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić, as well as the invitation to his colleague Vladimir Putin to join us next year in observing the 100th anniversary of the breach of Thessaloniki Front, the time when we used to win together and fight together. Furthermore, I have invited the Minister Shoygu as well on behalf of the Supreme Commander and President Aleksandar Vučić to attend the anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade on 20th October and to once again reconfirm our friendship, to remind ourselves how important and brave we were in the past and how important and brave we will be in the future – Minister Vulin stressed.
It was confirmed during the meeting that the equipping of Serbian Armed Forces with new material was very important, primarily with fighter planes, tanks and combat vehicles in order to carry out and enhance the process of training and strengthening our operational capabilities to deal with numerous challenges and threats of the ever so instable world.
Minister Vulin pointed out that MiG planes were to arrive from the Russian Federation according to the plans. All administrative procedures were carried out and both Russian and Serbian side honoured what had been agreed and only technical procedures remained. He expressed hope that the MiGs would arrive by the end of the year, and that they would be followed by equipment that would be fielded to our Army.
- I have once again confirmed our principled position that we will continue to be military neutral, just like we are, and that we will pay attention when making every decision primarily to the interests of Serbia, of course, and the interests of Serbia are to have the best possible relations with the Russian Federation. As long as Aleksandar Vučić is the Supreme Commander and President of the Republic of Serbia and as long as I am the minister of defence, Serbia will not be a member of NATO or any military alliance, just like it will never impose sanctions on the Russian Federation. Serbia won its right to decide who its friends are, to autonomously choose its political and military orientation, and this is how it is going to be in the future. I told my hosts that we were military neutral, that entering any king of alliance is out of the question, neither NATO nor CSTO, and that we would certainly continue behaving in a friendly way, in keeping with our interests, naturally. Our path, when it comes to the subject of the EU is perfectly clear and I said that, but when it comes to military orientation, we remain neutral and that is how it will be – Minister Vulin concluded.
Moreover, Vulin and Shoygu discussed further enhancement of bilateral military cooperation.
-I am confident that in the future, we will continue developing mutually beneficial bilateral military cooperation between Serbia and Russia who carefully build and foster special relations, defined by the Declaration on Strategic Partnership, with particular mark being left by the presidents Aleksandar Vučić and Vladimir Putin – Minister Vulin underlined and thanked the Russian Federation for the understanding and support it has been providing to Serbia in building its relations both with the countries in the East and the West in its best interest.
The meeting was attended by Acting Assistant Minister for Defence Policy Milan Mojsilović, Acting Assistant Minister of Defence for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović, Army Commander of Serbian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Milosav Simović and Defence Attaché of the Republic of Serbia in Moscow Colonel Budimir Gajić.
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