01.04.2014.

NATO Military Partnerships Coordination Workshop opens

In "Metropol" hotel today, the NATO Military Partnerships Coordination Workshop has been opened to last until 4 April. The workshop was opened by Mr Miroslav Jovanovic, Assistant Minister for Defence Policy, and Major General Haluk Çetinkaya, Deputy Chief of Staff Military Partnerships, Director of the Workshop.

Assistant Minister of Defence pointed out that the main objectives of the workshop are information sharing between the Alliance and Partners on new developments in the area of partnerships, as well as the discussion about programmes for 2015.

- I sincerely hope that you will be able to openly share views and experiences on issues of partnership

cooperation. Mutual trust and a sense of community are the basis of cooperation. Therefore, I expect in this sense that this workshop will contribute to greater understanding and joint efforts to achieve international stability through cooperation. Approach that our country shows is the result of the strong commitment of its leadership to continue and constantly improve the cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance that has already been very intensive, through the mechanisms of the Partnership for Peace Programme, which this year celebrates 20 years of the existence. This cooperation has been very successful for 11 years, without compromising the concept of military neutrality of the Republic of Serbia, Jovanovic said. He told the participants that during the next four days, they will be able to present their vision for the programme for the years 2014 and 2015, and to present the needs of their systems in this field.

- At the same time, this forum will allow for conducting bilateral talks between NATO Members and Partners on the current forms of cooperation, future prospects, as well as other issues that you might consider important, Assistant Minister said.

General Chetin Kaya welcomed the participants and stressed the importance of the workshop. He thanked the Ministry of Defence for support in organization of the Workshop.

The workshop provides participants the opportunity to express their views on the requirements and work programmes for the current year and the next year. It gives also the possibility for bilateral talks on the ongoing activities and cooperation, in order to identify problems and deficiencies, as well as other relevant topics of interest to the respective partner countries.