14.06.2011.

Strategic Military Partner Conference starts

Strategic Military Partner Conference, with participation of representatives from 56 countries, has started in Belgrade today. The three-day gathering was organized by the Allied Command Transformation, and the participants are CHODs and representatives of NATO member countries, those participating in PfP, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and the Contact Countries, as well as senior military representatives from the EU and NATO.

Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, opening the Conference, said that Serbia is committed to regional cooperation and maintaining security in this area, but also global peace through participation in UN and EU peacekeeping missions. He stressed that the challenges, risks and threats in the modern world are common to all the countries.

Defence Minister said that this set of opportunities for exchange of opinions because no country, no matter how powerful, is capable of addressing the transnational nature of security threats on its own. Sutanovac stressed that the Serbian defence system is dedicated to dialogue, partnership and joint engagement, and strengthening international cooperation.

According to him, Serbia is fully committed to strengthening security and solving all problems in the region through dialogue and by peaceful means. He pointed out that participating in Partnership for Peace Programme, Serbia wishes to contribute to all activities in the preservation of regional security.

- Cooperative approach to common security includes strengthening of mutual cooperation between the countries and other players in international relations. Measure of cooperation will be also the measure of success in ensuring peace and stability which are essential to every society and country. Non-cooperation by itself does not exclude the influence of the international threats, but rather multiplies the risks and certainly leads to destabilization – Defence Minister Sutanovac said.

The Defence Minister assessed that cooperation and partnership with NATO has greatly improved in recent years and reminded that Serbia's interest is also participation in all regional initiatives. - "We are aware of emotions from the past but we are totally oriented to the future," said Sutanovac .

Referring to the reforms in the Serbian Armed Forces, he reminded that as of this year it is totally professional, and that this process was done well and successfully. Sutanovac said that the restored confidence in the Armed Forces is best seen in great interest for enrolment on the Military Academy, recalling that in September, among the graduates of this school of military higher education there will be the first women officers, including pilots.

Expressing his satisfaction with the number of delegations who accepted to attend the Conference, General Miletic said that the number of delegations and the fact that all the continents are represented demonstrates that the risks, threats and security challenges in a globalized world are the same for all of us and require partnership in finding answers to them.

- - All of us, the participants in today's Conference convey messages and positions of our states and governments regarding the commitment to cooperation, joint training and education, all in order to have as much adequate as possible common response to current and future security challenges and threats. Partnership and transformation are the key words and dominate the contents of this conference. Both terms gained in importance after the Lisbon summit, which makes the task that is set before us more complex.

At the same time, I deem it a professional privilege that just at this conference in Belgrade I was given the opportunity to openly discuss the military aspects of partnership and transformation, the development of necessary military capabilities, access to shared resources and joint training and other cooperation programs in terms of safer and more secure global environment, general Miletic stressed.

According to him, in today's global environment it is difficult to define any other relationship, in political, diplomatic or military terms that has such weight as Partner relation. Awareness that each one of us acting or omitting, actively or passively, willingly or unwillingly, influences the global security picture, is present defining new dimensions to the Partnership.

-This awareness points to the importance of individual and collective responsibility. Therefore, talking about the partnership and its optimum forms, we are actually talking about more or less reliable partners, which makes the spirit of new relationships. Modern challenges, risks and threats are transnational and asymmetric in character. Social phenomena of modern times are dynamic and complex and all that imposes the necessity of finding new approaches to building capabilities to carry out missions and tasks. Like partnership, the military aspect of the term transformation has been discussed in a number of forums over the past two decades. The reason why it is topical today is the fact that the transformation of the armed forces is not determined any more by the assumed security challenges and capabilities of individual security actors – sovereign states in the international security scene – the Chief of Staff said, adding that the summit in Lisbon was focused mostly on global, not regional or local security challenges, and that this is evidence that interdependence in terms of security conditions also the causal links between all our transformations with a common goal – to be effective, interoperable and rational at the same time.

General Stephane Abrial, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, stressed the importance of strategic partnership and strategic concept in challenges facing global society. Opening Strategic Military Partner Conference, Abrial said that the gathering was organized at an important moment for Partnership and NATO after the Lisbon Treaty.

General Abrial added that 56 countries participate in the Conference in Belgrade and they are represented with more than 20 CHODs. He said that NATO Members and Partners today face global challenges for which it is necessary to find appropriate solutions, and pointed out the EU as a "key security factor".

Theme of the gathering is "Post Lisbon: Delivering Transformation", and in the working groups the discussion will be held on the joint training, partnership and mutual assistance, access to the global commons and the effective development of capabilities of the armed forces.