27.08.2010.

Meeting between Defence Ministers of Serbia and Canada

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac met today with the Canadian Minister of Defence Peter MacKay in the House Guard in Topcider.

After the talks, Minister Sutanovac pointed out that this is the first visit by the high delegation of the Ministry of Defence of Canada after a long period of time and an opportunity to extend and promote the already good cooperation.

- I informed my counterpart MacKay on all the reform actions carried out by the Ministry of Defence and our efforts to complete the professionalization of the Armed Forces this year, said Minister Sutanovac emphasizing the importance of the activities undertaken at the international level and the desire to promote such activities also with Canada.

- A large number of officers of the Serbian Armed Forces are educated outside the borders of our country, a number of our officers were in Canada, and we would like, apart from officers from other countries coming to have advanced training in our country, to have also the officers from Canada. This would create a high quality bridge of cooperation between the officers who can later be ambassadors of their armies.

Minister Sutanovac said that the talks were held also about the economic cooperation. Several of our factories of defence industry have already been exporting to Canada, and particularly significant is the export of ammunition, which could receive, after the testing, the NATO code as a certificate of the highest world quality and would go to export to NATO countries.

We are planning to sign the agreement on defence cooperation to make on that basis an agreement on bilateral military cooperation and raise our relations to the next level, Minister Sutanovac said, pointing out the fact that regarding the programme within which NAMSA donated to Serbia the amount of one million and three hundred thousand euros, the share of Canada accounted for half a million euros.

Sutanovac also emphasized the possibility of cooperation with Canada in the exchange of experiences concerning the participation in peacekeeping missions. – At the moment we are participating in six peacekeeping operations and the Canadian Armed Forces in 16. We wish to cooperate in that field and, exchanging the experiences, to learn from our partner. Among the areas of exchange of experiences Sutanovac also mentioned the professionalization and the introduction of chaplains' service in the Serbian Armed Forces.

Canadian Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay, thanking for the excellent welcome, said that he was impressed with reforms in the Serbian Armed Forces of which he was informed by Minister Sutanovac. In today's talks, he said, the directions of promoting the relations between the two countries, both in the military and the economic aspects were discussed. According to the Minister MacKay, some Canadian companies are interested in doing business in Serbia.

- Canada sees Serbia as a very important partner in the region and attaches great importance to security efforts in the Balkans, Minister MacKay said.

Canadian Defence Minister emphasized that apart from cooperation in military matters, there are opportunities for bilateral cooperation in other areas that are equally important, recalling the recent visit to the Serbian Minister of Justice to Canada, as well as other high-level visits in the previous period.

- In particular, I would like to stress the international military exchange programme between the armies of Canada and Serbia, which was established in 2005, especially in military training and education and advancement; today we talked about increasing that number and possibilities of exchange in other areas, Minister MacKay said. According to him, Canada believes that better integration of the Balkans into Euro-Atlantic institutions will contribute to stability in the region. He said that Canada also welcomes the participation of Serbia in the Partnership for Peace Programme and other activities undertaken in cooperation with NATO.