23.03.2010.

Delegation of the Ministry of Defence in Chad

State Secretary Zoran Vesic is at the head of the delegation of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces visiting the Serbian Military Medical Team in Chad engaged within the Norwegian contingent in the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations, from 21st to 23rd March. Within the delegation there are also Colonel Željko Petrovic, the Deputy Commander of Joint Operations Command, SAF GS, and Lieutenant Colonel Milan Rankovic from the International Military Cooperation Department, Defence Policy Sector.

Together with the Serbian delegation in Chad there is also the delegation of the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, headed by the State Secretary Espen Barth Eide. The State Secretaries Vesic and Eide used the opportunity to exchange their views regarding the future joint deployment of the mission members.

According to the State Secretary Vesic, the UN-led mission MINURCAT will apparently be completed in May, so that the members of the Serbian Armed Forces are likely to return home then. The State Secretaries Vesic and Eide agreed in their assessment that the joint involvement of military physicians from Serbia and Norway has been very successful leading to further expanding of cooperation. Vesic pointed out that Norway will be one of the main countries with which Serbia will cooperate when it comes to the UN-led missions.

Joint delegation of Serbia and Norway met also with General Elhadji Mouhamedou Kandji, Force Commander in MINURCAT. General Kanji praised the engagement of the Norwegian Deployable Hospital, the operation of which has significantly been contributed also by the Serbian military physicians and technicians, as well as the staff officers.

The fact that the engagement of the Norwegian and Serbian military physicians did not remain only in the framework of their basic task, the medical care of the UN mission members in Chad, was supported by the experience from the visit to the hospital in Abeche, during which the people from its management praised our doctors and thanked them for their assistance which, as they emphasized several times, saved the lives of the sick local residents.

The members of the Serbian military medical team received the visit of the delegation from the homeland with joy, taking the opportunity to get the first hand information about the current events in the country. To honour their guests they prepared an appropriate programme in the evening.

The visit by the State Secretary Vesic is to be continued today and it is scheduled that he meets with the government representatives of that African country in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad; the topic for discussion is bilateral cooperation.