Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
05.07.2010.

Interview with State Secretary Dušan Spasojevic for "Politika" daily



We wish powerful Serbian Armed Forces

In the peacekeeping mission in Chad we will have our independent contingent; we will send staff officers to the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon

One phase of the restructuring and transformation of the Serbian Armed Forces have been completed. According to assessments of domestic and foreign experts it was very successful. About that, but also about the future of the Armed Forces, Dušan Spasojevic, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, speaks for the "Politika" daily.

When speaking about the Serbian defence policy, what to do and what is the way ahead?

The goal of our defence policy is to have powerful armed forces to deter those who should be deterred and to be reliable and counted on for our partners and allies. A strong system of defence is a guarantee of a strong and stable country and represents an important foreign policy tool and an important economic resource.

A powerful army always has a reputation in the society?

We are proud of the fact that in the last three years the public trust in the Army renewed. Let me remind you that the Army after the Church is an institution that enjoys the greatest trust of the citizens. The best indication of returning confidence in the Army and the officers' vocation is the fact that in 2006 only 21 candidates applied for 240 seats at the Military Academy, while this year the number has gone up to 1259, out of which 450 are holders of "Vuk's diploma".

What marked the Serbian defence policy in the previous period?

The focus of defence policy in the previous period was on intensive international military cooperation, development of strategic and doctrinal documents and completion of a new organization of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces. In the framework of international cooperation in the field of defence special emphasis was put on the regional cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral. It is very important that we have signed bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of defence with almost all countries in the region. We have recently initiated the establishment of military cooperation with Tirana and we are waiting for the response from the Albanian side. We have very good relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as with Macedonia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. We have recently signed an agreement with Croatia, thus contributing to opening a new page in our bilateral relations.

Peacekeeping missions and the Serbian Armed Forces?

Participation in peacekeeping missions and multinational operations has had a constant upward trend over the last few years. In addition to the existing missions in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Congo and Chad, where we are going to have our independent contingent in a few days, we will send our staff officers to the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, as part of the Spanish contingent, and the observers to the UN mission in Cyprus in the framework of Slovak-Hungarian contingent. All the missions that we are currently participating in are UN-mandated and they bear much of the financial costs of our participation in these missions through the reimbursements. It is important to point out that in the past few years, despite the complex security and political situation in the countries in which we took part within the peacekeeping missions, we did not have any killed or wounded, and that in the previous missions we had also 23 women as members of our contingents.

With which armies in the world the Serbian Armed Forces currently has the best cooperation?

We have established military cooperation with more than 50 countries. In most cases, this cooperation is better than the political one or follows the good political relations. Thus, the defence cooperation with the United States is the best part of our overall bilateral relationship, and the cooperation with China follows completely the friendly relations between the two countries. We wish to improve the cooperation with the Russian Federation, and a good indicator in this regard will be the visit by the Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff in the second half of the year, on the invitation of SAF CHOD Lieutenant General Mileti?. We are planning to establish the defence cooperation with Russia at a high level also in the political sphere. We expect to sign the agreement with India, develop excellent relations with Turkey, countries of the Middle East and Africa, and continue the successful cooperation with the European partners.

Where are we now in the process of the Partnership for Peace?

We wish to make use of all the capacities of the Partnership for Peace programme and to achieve the status of the improved partnership. During the summer we are going to send our officers to the military part of our mission in Brussels, thus fulfilling the last requirement for our full involvement which will be of great benefit to our military in terms of training, education and professional development of some capacities. Also, besides the role in the preservation of territorial integrity and sovereignty, contributing to building the regional peace and stability, accelerating the process of joining the EU, strengthening the economy with the results of our defence industry and considering the fact that we have become an exporter of security, which strengthens our foreign policy reputation, the defence system is one of the key instruments in terms of execution of our state policy.
 
MOD
Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
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