30.01.2014.
Minister Rodic at the United Nations
On the last day of his official visit to the United States, Nebojsa Rodic, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, arrived to New York, where he met with officials of the United Nations (UN), Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, and Anthony Banbury, Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support.The Minister informed his interlocutors that the engagement of the Republic of Serbia in the UN peacekeeping operations makes a substantial contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security and that Serbia attaches great importance to the UN values concerning the peacekeeping operations, and in order to improve our commitment, apart from the permanent increase in our participation in 2013 we established the functions of a military representative in the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the United Nations. Minister Rodic stressed that we continue to develop plans by which we wish to increase our participation, adding that the obvious example of this is the Proposal for the plan for the employment in 2014, which provides for the possibility of participation in more peacekeeping missions under the auspices of the UN.
In addition to a significant increase of engagement in the existing missions, such as those in Lebanon, Cyprus, and DR Congo , the Ministry of Defence thoroughly considers the possibility of more serious engagement of military medicine resources, which besides human resources means also the engagement of a deployable medical facility Role 2 in some of the missions. In addition, Minister Rodic expressed an initiative, in line with the significant increase of the contingent in Lebanon, to consider the possibility of obtaining also a staff position in the UN Forces Command in Lebanon.When it comes to the UNMIK mission, he expressed his satisfaction with the engagement and status-neutral actions of the said mission, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1244. The above is of special importance having in mind the dialogue conducted with Pristina mediated by the European Union. The Minister assessed that UNMIK has a key role in maintaining peace and stability in Kosovo and Metohija, and stressed the necessity of preserving the existing scope of presence. The Republic of Serbia is trying to secure peace and prosperity for all citizens of Kosovo and Metohija in all peaceful and diplomatic means, especially dialogue, and it is therefore necessary that all of the international missions in that territory, especially UNMIK and KFOR, stay on the ground and ensure the safety conditions for a smooth continuation of the ongoing process.
Serbia strongly appreciates the decision of the UN to use the Nis Airport as a primary safe airport in situations of natural disasters and threats to security of the UNMIK staff and other UN bodies, engaged in Kosovo and Metohija.
Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations welcomed the current engagement of the Republic of Serbia, stressing the importance of the steady increase in the number of members engaged in UN peacekeeping operations, primarily because of their strong professionalism and high quality manifested in previous engagements. He said that the UN has today a new concept as a basis for the employment of forces, which is based on the existing good bilateral and multilateral relations between countries. This may be a recommendation Serbia to which direction can it plan its future engagement in the UN peacekeeping operations.Anthony Banbury pointed out that the resources in the field of medicine are needed in many parts of the world and assessed that the engagement of a deployable medical facility Role 2 would be of great importance. In addition, the UN needs also other niche capabilities, such as special units, aircraft assets (transport and attack helicopters), medical teams for evacuation by air, engineering units, transport capacity for engagement in difficult conditions and others.
At the end of the talks, Minister Rodic invited Mulet and Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed, Head of Office of Military Affairs of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in the next few months, to visit Belgrade and the deployable medical facility Role 2, as well as other capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces that could be made available to the UN.
