27.04.2011.

SEE Military Medical Services Conference starts

State Secretary in MoD Zoran Vesic, MD opened the SEE Military Meedical Services Conference in the House of Guards in Topcider today. On that occasion, he was greeted by the Chief of the Military Health Care Department Brigadier General Veljko Todorovic, MD.

– The purpose of this conference is to view the capacities of the military medical services of the countries of the South East Europe with a view of reaching possible agreement on joint participation in cases of accidents and natural disasters when there is the need for several countries to get involved. The threats all countries are facing today know no borders, which can be seen in accidents and natural disasters which occurred in the previous two years in various parts of the world-as State Secretary Vesic stated, emphasizing that no countries is capable of dealing and tackling these threats on its own, which is why this conference aims at the participants becoming familiarized with each other capacities and to see the capacities in order to be ready for possible accidents and incidents.

Vesic added that the mod of Serbia has already signed agreements on participation with the majority of countries in the region as a basis of cooperation in military medical care.

In his address to his colleagues, General Swere Diesen, the representative of the Norwegian delegation stressed the importance of interstate integrations for the purposes of reducing military expenditures in the years when military budgets have already been significantly reduced, with the trend of downsizing army members being resent.

Vice Admiral William Roberts, the representative of the US delegation, also pointed out the necessity for cooperation between countries in military medicine at the regional level, supporting the Balkan countries to cooperate even closer in the area of military health care. Furthermore, as he pointed out, there is a huge necessity for cooperation between the civil and military sector, especially in view of the recent disasters which struck Japan, New Zeland and central Serbia. During his address, Vice Admiral Roberts mentioned the possibility of cooperation between the military medical center in Washington and the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.

This three-day conference has gathered more than 50 experts in the area of military health-care from ten regional countries. The organizers of the conference are the Ministry of Defense, the Kingdom of Norway defense ministry and the US EUCOM.

During the conference the participants will consider possibilities for cooperation of the SEE countries in military health care, with special attention being paid to experiences in multinational peace operations. As has been announced, one of the main topics will be careful consideration of the possibility of forming joint medical forces of the countries in this part of Europe which will be able to respond in cases of disasters accidents and incidents jointly as well as in the cases of international acts of terrorism.