15.10.2012.

Meeting between the Defense Ministers of Serbia and Pakistan

First Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Aleksandar Vucic met today with the Federal Minister of Defence of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Syed Naveed Qamar in the House of Guards in Topcider.

Speaking about the importance of today's meeting, Minister Vucic said that Pakistan was and remained a friend of Serbia and has always been on the side of our country in the international context.

- Topic of today's meeting was the promotion of bilateral cooperation in different fields, and we talked about the military-to-military, military-economic and military-educational cooperation. We have agreed that a military delegation of the Republic of Serbia should visit Pakistan as soon as possible and also there were discussions about the development of cooperation in the field of technology transfer, which is of great importance for our country - Minister Vucic said, adding that this would open the doors for various types of cooperation between the two countries. He was more precise saying that our defence industry has to offer armored vehicles, large caliber ammunition, night-vision devices, and the use of wind tunnels that are in the possession of our Military technical Institute.

Despite previous efforts, according to the Minister Vucic, the first concrete steps were made today in establishing the cooperation, the results of which, as he announced, are to be expected soon. During his visit to our country, he added, the Pakistani Defense Minister will visit the key facilities of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces considering the above mentioned possibilities for cooperation.

Minister Vucic announced that he will also talk with the Foreign Minister of our country about the opening of our Embassy in Pakistan.

Pakistani Defence Minister thanked Minister Vucic for the invitation to visit Serbia and to participate in the improvement and strengthening of cooperation between the two countries.

- Pakistan and Serbia have good cooperation. The tough times in this country have passed and the time has come to re-establish good relations and strengthen the cooperation in defence, trade, as well as the economic cooperation. Over the past several years, there were arrangements on the signing of agreement on bilateral cooperation, and today we have discussed how to continue what has been started in the past, said Minister Qamar, adding that both sides agreed on the exchange of officers who will visit the Military Academy for education and exchange of experience.

- We have talked about the production in the field of defense. Tomorrow during the visit, we will better establish the forms of cooperation in order to continue with it in a variety of areas, such as counter terrorism. Serbia is a strong and proud country with a great future. We support Serbia's desire to join the European Union, which would mark the strengthening of its economic stability, the Pakistani Defence Minister pointed out.