12.02.2009.

Reception on occasion of SAF Day

The ceremonious reception on occasion of 15 February-the Day of SAF , given by Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac and the Acting Chief of SAF GS LTG Miloje Miletic in the House of Guards last night, was attended by the President of Serbia Boris Tadic, the Chairperson of the National Assembly Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Prime Minister of Serbia Mirko Cevtkovic as well as the representatives of MoD and SAF, of the military diplomatic corps, of religious denominations and communities as well as other illustrious public figures.

In his congratulatory address, Minister of Defense Dragann Sutanovac stressed that the previous year had been marked by many security challenges while the system of defense continued with reforms.

„We will do our best to speed up the reforms and we are convinced that in the years to come we will be ably to realize what we have set as goals and beyond”, stated Sutanovac announcing the reforms in the domains of military education, health care and strengthening of the defense system, predominantly of the Serbian Armed Forces.

Minister thanked all those who came to this reception, saying “we look upon that as a form of showing support to our reform goals and wishes”. He extended special thanks to the representatives of the media which cover the activities of the defense system “ since as this is the first time we have had an adequate treatment, and we hope to remain as open to the public since it is our firm opinion that these reforms can be successful only with the support of the public, and the citizens of Serbia who, after all, do pay this army.

Welcoming the guests, Acting Chief of SAF GS LTG Miletic said that in tha past year SAF had continued with the reforms in line with the conditions created for this.

The main focus was on modernizing the process of training in our units, technical modernization and partial dinamization”, said General Miletic stressing that this was a path to building interoperability and capabilities.

All these illustrious guests, as he pointed out, were a sign of their support to our defense system and the efforts we are investing to create a modern army capable of responding to challenges and risks.

- By carrying out all our tasks we send a message that we are ready to cooperate with all armies in order to preserve peace and security in the region and beyond, said General Miletic .