16.03.2010.

Minister Sutanovac visits Portugal

Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac during his visit to Portugal stated today that he had received reassurances from Portuguese officials that this country would not unilaterally downsize the number of its contingent’s members engaged in KFOR which is of great significance to Serbia in terms of providing security and safety in KiM and the region.

"Recently Admiral James Stavridis (Commander of USEUCOM-United States European Command and SACEUR- Supreme Allied Commander Europe) has also confirmed that any further downsizing would be done with Belgrade being consulted on the matter. But today we have received further confirmation that Portugal would not independently downsize its forces in Kosovo, which means higher level of safety for all those living there”, as Sutanovac stated to Beta news agency.

After talks with the Portuguese ministers of defense and foreign and with the Portuguese Parliament Spokesperson, he remarked that both sides agreed that there was both countries disagreed on the future status of Kosovo, but that he nonetheless thanked his hosts for the involvement of Portuguese soldiers as this is the largest contingent that a country has sent to Kosovo.

Sutanovac added that the unanimous conclusion of all these meetings was that Serbia was making great efforts in the EU association process with the Portuguese officials offering their full support on Serbia’s path to EU.

"We thought it important to hear that the reforms we are implementing at the moment were satisfactory, meeting all the necessary criteria and that we had Portugal’s full support for the continuation of the reforms", as the Minister observed, noting that there was much room to improve the bilateral relations between the two countries.

With respect to this, possible directions for the development of the cooperation between the two countries’ defense systems was cooperation in the field of military medicine, education, peace operations, and in the field of defense industry, that is by two economies establishing fruitful cooperation.

Both countries as was noted had certain production in defense industry and promoting this cooperation could create necessary conditions for joint emergence on third markets.

"Our conclusion is this: cooperation in defense is the pillar of bilateral relations and cooperation”, added Sutanovac saying that the SAF CHOD had also received an invitation to visit Portugal this year, and the Defense Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva had accepted this invitation to visit Serbia.

Besides meeting with his Portuguese counterpart, Minister of Defense of the Republic of Serbia also met with the Minister of Foreign Luís Filipe Marques Amado, and the Spokesperson of the Portuguese Parliament Jaime José Matos da Gama.

This is the first visit of any defense minister from Belgrade to Portugal ever.