Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
03.10.2013.

Minister Rodic at SEE Defence Ministerial



Within the Comprehensive Regional Ministerial meeting, Minister of Defence Nebojsa Rodic participated today in the South East Defence Ministerial (SEDM), held in Brdo near Kranj.

In order to conduct the necessary synchronization and rationalisation of total regional resources in the conditions of economic constraints, defence ministers of South Eastern Europe exchanged views on the prospects of regional projects implemented under the auspices of the SEDM process.

On this occasion, Minister Rodic said that the Republic of Serbia took part in almost all general and specialized forms of multilateral cooperation in the region with a varying degree. Therefore, the importance of enhancement of the regional cooperation is promoted in the National Security Strategy and Defence Strategy of the Republic of Serbia. Like other countries in the region, through activities within the regional initiatives, Serbia seeks to strengthen its own security and through dialogue and cooperation to contribute to the stability of Southeast Europe. He pointed out that the European Integration of the countries in the region is an unstoppable process, which was the reason why the success of the neighbours of the Republic of Serbia on their road towards the EU was welcomed. He said that the SEDM is a very important regional security initiative which gathers the largest number of countries in the region and has a respectable institutional potential, and it is very important that all countries continued to actively work on finding optimum models for cooperation.

The SEDM defence ministers were informed that the Republic of Serbia had sent a liaison officer of the Serbian Armed Forces to the Command of the Southeast Europe Multinational Peace Brigade – SEEBRIG in August this year. Minister Rodic invited colleagues to send their senior representatives to the next meeting of the SEDM Deputy Chiefs of Defence Meeting, which is to be organized in Serbia in the middle 2014.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Minister Rodic had separate bilateral meetings with Defence Ministers Roman Jakic of Slovenia, Zakerijah Osmic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vitalie Mereuta of Moldova and Ante Kotromanovic of Croatia, as well as the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Evelyn Farkas. During the meeting they discussed the modalities for enhancement of cooperation in the field of defence and the joint conclusion was that only pragmatic and rational approach to the implementation of the established bilateral military cooperation plans could appropriately respond to the complexity of the conditions for their implementation.

The initiative for the establishment of the Southeastern Europe Defence Ministerial Process (SEDM) was launched at the meeting of defence ministers in Tirana in March 1996, at the proposal of the United States, with the intention to strengthen cooperation among the countries of Southeastern Europe and the United States in the field of defence. The main objective of SEDM is to intensify understanding and political- military cooperation in the region of Southeast Europe for the sake of strengthening the stability and security in this region. Mechanisms of cooperation within the SEDM process are ministerial meetings, meetings of the SEDM Coordination Committee, meetings of the Politico-Military Steering Committee and meetings of Deputy Chiefs of Defence of the SEDM countries.

Photographs: Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia.

photoPHOTOGALLERY