14.02.2011.
Reception to mark the Day of SAF in the Great War Hall of old GS
Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac and Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Miloje Miletic hosted tonight at the Great War Hall of the old GS HQ a reception to celebrate 15th February – the Day of the Serbian Army. 
The reception was attended by the Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, the Serbian Patriarch His Holiness Irinej, the representatives of legislative, executive and judicial authorities, the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Serbia, religious communities and denominations, foreign diplomats and military representatives, public figures from cultural and artistic life, journalists and many guests. Welcoming the guests, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Miloje Miletic said that this national holiday was an opportunity to reflect on the year behinds us and the events and activities which marked it.
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We continued with the reform process and rounded up the process of professionalization of our armed forces, thus reaching the goal we set years ago - that should Serbia get a fully professional and modern organized army, as General Miletic remarked, adding, that that had been one of the most complex tasks. He said that the professionalization was of particular importance for many young people who found a steady job in the Serbian Army and an opportunity to progress in accordance with their preferences, abilities and work. - Along with the reform process, we have conducted exercises at our training grounds, participated in international exercises abroad, trained professional soldiers, as well as conscripts, while repeatedly offering assistance to local governments and citizens providing relief from the consequences of natural disasters - underlined the Chief of Staff .
According to him, our army is now an indispensable factor of stability in the country and the region, and also an indispensable factor in scientific, technological and any other aspect of the development in Serbia. - For us this was a big task-General Miletic said - but this does not mean that reforms and modernization of the Army are complete. We have to implement the concept of operational capabilities and to equip the military with modern weaponry and military equipment, to develop the established system of training all this in view of achieving the desired level of interoperability.
The Chief of General Staff said that the professional Army of Serbia would continue to perform all its assigned missions and tasks. - In order to do this we need the support from all relevant institutions of our country, but Serbia will always be able to count on its Army - General Miletic said at the end of his address.
Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said that 2010 would be remembered as the year of great reforms, stressing that the reform was a never ending process. He recalled that last year was marked by the completion of the process of professionalization which has placed the Serbian Armed Forces in a completely new format – turning it into a fully professional, modern army, at the same level with other developed countries in the world.
- This year we started new tasks and I am proud to say that we have already fulfilled some of them For the first time we have an Inspector General of Military Intelligence and Military Security our agency as we have promised, and today we got the first rector of the University of Defence, where both the rector and the university will strive to be tone of the most respected.- said Minister of defense minister.
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We want to be as successful this year as the last, and that we are on track is proven by the citizens themselves. When we said we would open up opportunities for voluntary military service we did not expect to have two and a half times as many young people applying to do voluntary military service. The greatest guarantee of our success are these young men and women who have signed up for the military, and some of them have even served their conscript duty in civilian institutions. Today they want to join the military and serve in uniform, which indicates that even those who had some doubts about the reforms now have faith in them.
The minister added that the upcoming tasks will be easier than those of the last year. He said that the army had participated and was still participating in relieving the consequences of natural disasters in Prijapolje and Kraljevo. At the end of his speech Sutanovac thanked the guests with the promise that the army would justify the citizens’ trust in this year as well.
PHOTOGALLERY
