Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
15.10.2010.

Minister Šutanovac in Brussels



After the meeting with the Chairman of the EU Military Committee, General Hakan Siren, in Brussels, Dragan Šutanovac said that he got the impression that it is eagerly expected when Serbia will decide to appear in peacekeeping missions under the auspices of the EU.

In the statement to FoNet, Šutanovac pointed out that he presented in the EU Military Committee the developments in the defence reforms, and expressed his belief that Serbia has the capacity to appear in these missions, primarily in medical teams, but also in other ones.

In his opinion, Serbia can adequately respond to the challenges, risks and threats regarding these issues, as it adopted high standards in that field. Šutanovac conveyed that the topic of the discussions in Brussels was also Kosovo and stressed that all his counterparts praised Serbia for being able to "finally realise the time in which it lives and shaped its position together with the EU, which was adopted by the UN through a resolution."

- Our wish is very clear and there is no indecision about it: we wish to start the dialogue with Pristine as soon as possible to discuss the issue of solving the daily problems of the citizens living in Kosovo – Šutanovac pointed out.

For us there is no reason to delay the talks, Šutanovac said, adding that his counterparts from the EU understood that and promised to do their best to have these talks realised as soon as possible.

Speaking about the work of the Military Office in the Mission of Serbia to NATO, he said that its completion is now just a technical issue, because the political decision has already been made.

It is expected that in the second quarter of next year, the Office is completed; it should begin to participate in the work of NATO Committee and receive information which have been unavailable for Serbia so far.

The recent events and savagery of hooligans in Belgrade and Genoa were something that all the representatives from the European Union in Brussels with whom the Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Šutanovac met were interested in. He said to FoNet that this problem goes beyond social life and becomes a serious political campaign.

The events in Belgrade and Genoa are politically motivated and their participants have given political statements, making it clear that their wish is to prevent Serbia from its further going on the European path, Šutanovac warned.

He is convinced that the judiciary and the security structures have the power and knowledge to finally conclude this issue and noted that the counterparts from the EU offered to transfer the experiences from their countries.

- It is important that none of them asked how was it possible that something like this happened, because all the countries in Europe, sooner or later, had such problems. However, all of us wonder how we will confront these issues – Šutanovac said .
 
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Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia, Bircaninova 5 street, Belgrade
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