08.04.2014.

Distinguished Visitors Day at "Viking 14" exercise

The Distinguished Visitors Day has been held today at the Centre for training through simulations in the "Banjica 2" barracks within the ten-day international computer assisted command post exercise "Viking 14".

Nebojsa Rodic, Minister of Defence in the caretaker government, General Ljubisa Dikovic, Chief of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff, with members of the collegium, State Secretary Zoran Djordjevic, Assistant Minister Miroslav Jovanovic, as well as the representatives of the armed forces of the United States, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Kazakhstan, and representatives of the United Nations, OSCE and other domestic and foreign organizations attended the presentation of the exercise and visited all working points and suppositions.

After visiting the working points of the "Viking 14" exercise, while addressing journalists at the command post 4 of the multinational brigade, Minister Rodic recalled that it was the activity whose implementation began fifteen years ago, and this is the seventh exercise of this type.

- I think that we in Serbia can be satisfied with the fact that we have prepared ourselves well with the previous war games for such an exercise where we hosted participants from seven countries, and members of our armed forces make a significant and distinctive contribution and impact. What is important to point out, is that the members of the Army are also among the participants, and their commander is today, along with three of our officers, in the command post at the Kingdom of Sweden. Minister Rodic said that, except in Sweden and in our country, the exercise takes place in Ireland, Bulgaria and Georgia.

- It is very important that it confirms the readiness of our Armed Forces, but it is also important that the exercise simulates realistic situations that can happen, and almost every set scenario that we have been able to hear today, can be linked to an event that has either already taken place or is present somewhere today.

The Minister of Defence has confirmed that we in Serbia, as co-realisers, can be completely satisfied, just as the leadership of the Armed Forces, led by General Dikovic, is satisfied with all the things that we managed to provide to the members of the armies from two continents to feel as if they were in their units.

During the presentation, Brigadier General Goran Zekovic, Officer Scheduling the Exercise reminded that its goal is to improve the training level of civilians, military and police to work together in a unique multifunctional and multinational environment.

- The concept of the exercise involves planning and conducting a UN mandated Chapter VII peace operation in an unstable environment and based on a comprehensive approach, focusing on cooperation and coordination with all relevant actors, understanding their interdependencies and relations, General Zekovic said, noting that this exercise is a great experience for members of the Serbian Armed Forces, because while responding they must take into account all the specificities of police, security and humanitarian forces on the ground which results in the improvement of training level of the civilian, military and police exercising elements, joint action in a multidimensional environment where participants in the exercise develop skills so that they can meet the current and future security challenges, risks and threats, which is the goal of the exercise.

During his part of the presentation, Colonel Zoran Lucic, Head of the Centre for training through simulation and Director for the part of the "Viking 14" exercise in Serbia, presented its basic scenario, organization and structure and confirmed that everything is going according to plan, and that the implementation of the Serbian side involved 64 officers, with 22 from partner countries, while about 15 % of the participants are representatives of the police and civilians.

According to the number of persons engaged from the Serbian Armed Forces, as well as according to the number of countries and local and international organizations, "Viking 14" exercise is one of the largest international exercises in which the Serbian Armed Forces has participated so far.