24.08.2012.
Defence Minister meets with Resident Coordinator of UN to Serbia
First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Aleksandar Vucic met with William Infante, UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia.Topic of the meeting was fight against corruption, capacity development program for inventory management of conventional ammunition in the Republic of Serbia, as well as gender equality for women in the military.
The meeting specifically discussed the fight against corruption. Infante has expressed his readiness to assist the Head of the Office for the Coordination of Security Aleksandar Vucic in all aspects of fight against corruption, the establishment of expert groups for the development of action plans and concrete measures, staff training and financial support to build the capacity necessary to combat corruption. Both sides believe that the understanding of good practice and possible shortcomings in the implementation of procedures relating to the prevention of the risk of corruption, can help the Government of Serbia to help reduce these risks.
During the meeting, Minister Vucic said that high quality collaboration with the Ministry of Defense of the United Nations and its specialized agencies and bodies has great importance for the continuation of the reform process, which Serbian the ministry of is highly committed to, which is especially important for our country's progress towards full membership in the European Union.
In the future, priorities of the Ministry of Defence will be addressing surplus ordnance and conventional munitions storage in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations in Serbia on joint projects to reduce the risk of misuse of weapons.Minister Vucic thanked Mr. Infante for the support of the United Nations Development Programme in developing capacities to manage conventional ammunition stocks as Serbia wants to show it adheres to the standards, criteria and procedures of the UN and the OSCE in the field of disarmament and arms control
It was noted that the Ministry of Defence had successfully cooperated with UN agency for gender equality and empowerment of women, as well as with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This cooperation takes place in the function of providing support to the Ministry of Defense to implement the National Action Plan on "Women, Peace and Security in the Republic of Serbia", in accordance with accepted UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
