27.05.2011.

Minister Sutanovac in Hungary

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac has stated today in Budapest that Serbia is sincerely pledging for European values, which was demonstrated in the arrest of Ratko Mladic, thus eliminating one of the biggest obstacles to its European perspective.

"Yesterday, Serbia showed that its support to the European values is not only declarative", the Minister said at the joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Csaba Hende.

Sutanovac said that by arresting Mladic Serbia made a big step which was welcomed in the whole world, and expressed his satisfaction that he is also finding support in Hungary today

He stressed that Serbia has thus dispelled one of the biggest obstacles to its European perspective, and expressed hope that by the end of the year our country will obtain a candidate status and the date of commencement of negotiations with the EU.

"We are to experience a momentum in this area and we expect Serbia to become a candidate country and start negotiations with the EU", said the minister, and thanked Hungary for the support provided to Serbia in the European integration.

Sutanovac said that, with the European Parliament, along with 19 other countries, Hungary has ratified the Stabilization and Association Agreement, and urged other countries to do so and thus support Serbia.

Defence ministers of Hungary and Serbia, Csaba Hende and Dragan Sutanovac agreed that the cooperation of relevant ministries and armies of the two states is on a high level, but there is room for further improvement of relations, especially in sharing the experiences in peacekeeping missions.

Sutanovac said more precisely that one of the topics of discussion was also further exchange of experiences in peacekeeping missions in which Hungary has larger experience than Serbia.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Defence has planned to increase the involvement of Serbian defence system in the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, in which it participates with the Hungarian colleagues.

Šutanovac added that the topic was also cooperation in military medicine, as well as cooperation between the special units of the two armies.

Serbian Defence Minister recalled that yesterday Serbia signed a Security Agreement with the EU, which is one of two documents that allow participation in EU- led peacekeeping missions for the first time in the history of our country, and expressed his hope that the other agreement also will be signed soon.

According to him, there are plans for participation in the peacekeeping mission "Atalanta" in Somalia and in Uganda, where the members of the Serbian defence system will train Somali military and police forces and their medical teams.

During the visit of Sutanovac to Hungary, the 2011 Bilateral Cooperation Plan was signed.

Visit of the Serbian Minister of Defence to Budapest began with welcome ceremony, and the press conference attracted great attention of local media.