09.11.2010.
Minister Sutanovac’s interview to Politika daily
Halifax-Canada
Neither strong storms which made it difficult for the planes to both fly and land did not stop several hundreds of experts from around the world to reach Halifax, a town not so well known to the general public in the East of Canada turning it into a temporary center of international security. The top officials of military, police, intelligence and other security services gathered in Halifax to send a unified message to the world that through cooperation they wish to curb at least some of the threats they are increasingly more exposed to-as targets of extremists, terrorists, organized and cyber crime, even those measures which endanger basic civil liberties and rights.
The need for security is a strong unifying factor-as was agreed by all participants at the end of the three-day second Security Forum, which was hosted by the US German Marshall Fund and the Department of Defense of Canada. This was also the assessment made by Minister of Defense of Serbia Dragan Sutanovac in an interview to our paper, before yesterday’s three-day convention which was full of meetings of maximum discretion at the sidelines of the forum.What drew my attention was the approach of participants who treat the world as a source of greater god as well as the source of a worldwide evil.
Observing that we here in Serbia also regard certain events in the world as less important unless we are mentioned as main participants, my question to Sutanovac was his view of the global sidelines and our “crucial issues”.
D.S. The previous position that security was indivisible, where we mostly only thought of ourselves, we have now reached a point where global events affect us as well. However thinks that by neglecting global events, and by isolating Serbia can avoid global issues, is obviously oblivious to the current security issues and modern trends.
No country can solve and tackle global challenges as they step beyond administrative borders, and there is the continuous need to stay connected, as Sutanovac remarked observing : “While the war raged in the former Yugoslavia, the organized crime wad the factor which connected us all regardless of ethnic or religious differences, thus demonstrating that we can actually stay connected, may it be even in the wrong way.
The forum was mostly dedicated to the security cooperation between the North America and Europe. During the opening remarks, it was agreed that this was a meeting of friends with common goals. Did our minister feel the same way about his?
Absolutely, the fact remains that we had some 40 state delegations participating as well as a large number of independent analysts, and representatives of NGO sector bespeaks of the large interest of people who are able to offer certain solutions to upgrading security structures in the world. It is even more important to see Serbia participating in such a conference (this is the second Security Forum), and that we were given an opportunity to meet with a number of our colleagues from security structures, including our hosts, representatives of the USA, Denmark, Germany. We may be a small country, but Serbia was regarded as a very important participant at the forum in Halifax, where one of the many panel discussions was dedicated to “developing a security community in the Balkans”.
There is a general need to establish an intelligence community for exchange of information pertaining to security. Some might say it is too early for that, but if you take a look at the problems we are facing, you will soon realize that we cannot continue living in the past trying to correct it, but should rather use it as a lesson learned in order to do something better for our future. As part of cooperation of security agencies, we have recently had a meeting of directors and deputy directors of security agencies, where they agreed on future forms of cooperation. This all shows that there is a wish, will and knowledge to tackle problems preventively and not repressively. The political authorities in Serbia have no doubts about this; they consider this to be a right solution, and I hope to see the same spirit in our colleagues in the neighboring countries, which will enable us to do something beneficial to all sides in the region.
This convention in Halifax suggested that security organs are establishing better connections that in previous years and that even their relations as better than the relations between politicians.
I support the thesis that a solider will understand other soldier better, and that if the army had its say there would be no wars, as wars break out due to poor political decisions. However, civil management of armed forces is extremely important and we should create a political network which will enable professionals to cooperate in the best possible way. In the South Eastern Europe region Serbia is making these steps as we speak, and recent signing of the cooperation agreement with the Croatian minister in Zagreb shows that we are keeping up with the time we live in, going even faster… President Tadic’s visit to Vukovar a few days ago is also a gesture which serves to relax all those working on joint security, as Sutanovac says.
Security and economy were stressed as factors without which there is no business.
According to Sutanovac, the connection between economy and security is one of those questions as which comes first-the egg or the chicken. These two segments are intertwined and the sooner we understand that our economy depends on security and vice versa, the sooner we can move forward.
The upcoming transformation of NATO was also one of the main discussion topics during the conference. I also commented that I have recently heard someone say that even though Serbia is not going to apply for candidacy for NATO, it is already in it as it is surrounded by it members (or prospective candidates).
We also have to take into consideration the geographical status of our country and the fact that we are a PFp signatory. If you take a look at our borders, you can see that Serbia is surrounded by NATO and this already means that it is in the NATO. NATO candidacy is not one of our priorities at the moment, but we opted to cooperate with our neigbours, which are NATO members.
Yesterday, Sutanovac left Halifax and went to the USA to pay a several-day visit where he will meet with Pentagon officials, especially with the National Guard top officials as well as the State Department and in the Congress. He will also give a lecture at the Washington national Defense University, where there will be talks of the reforms of the army, which “has already sparked very positive reactions both east and west”, as Dragan Sutanovac at the end of the interview to our paper as the only reporter from the Security Forum in Halifax. Our paper will also try to give more interviews, and get insight into behind the scenes events, and other exclusive stories.
