15.12.2009.

Minister receives his Czech colleague

The Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac met with the Czech Minister of Defense today in the House of Guards in Topcider Martin Bartak. The two ministers spoke of the cooperation of the two states and the current security issues.

In a media statement, Minister stressed that ever since 2005, after the signing of the Cooperation Agreement of the two countries, Serbia and the Czech Republic had had a very good cooperation especially in the fields of military education, NBC protection, military geography, standardization, strategic planning and especially in terms of military economy.

-At today’s meeting we opened up the possibility of joint investments into military economy hoping to realize certain military technical plans in the Czech Republic as well as in Serbia, as Sutanovac stated. In his words, it is possible that the Czech army will be another user of the ammunition produced in the Serbian factories.

He reminded that 13 SAF members of MoD and SAF had been educated at the Czech Military Academy in Viskov during 2009. the minister of defense of Serbia took this opportunity to thank his Czech counterpart for al the support of the Czech Government to Serbia’s EU integrations.

During the talks, the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic was informed by his Serbian colleague of the current problems the Serbian defense system was facing, such as budgeting. There was also talk of the participation of the Serbian armed forces in multinational operations, where Minister Sutanovac emphasized that SAF would continue taking part in these operations in Lebanon.

Bartak remarked that not only military issues were considered during the talks, but rather that the general relations of both countries were the topic of discussion, such as European and Euro-Atlantic integrations, reminding that the Czech Republic had very positive experiences as a member of both organizations.

- I tried to stress the benefits we had as a country, as a member of the NATO, as these benefits pertain mainly to security. It is not just security but other important economic questions. Becoming a member of the NATO is believed to be one of the most important events in the newer Czech history.
Bartak reiterated his country’s readiness to help and share experiences with Serbia in many fields especially in peacekeeping operations, military education and defense industry. A joint presentation of both defense industries would achieve a better effect.

As for the field of military medicine, it should be one of the crucial points of future cooperation as both cou7ntries have significant capacities in this field.
Minister Sutanovac took this opportunity to express his gratitude to Minister Bartak in public for the participation of the Czech airplanes in Batajnica air show, as well as for accepting to give a lecture to the students of the Military Academy.