03.10.2014.
Defence consultations with the Czech Republic
In the course of regularly planned activities, Delegation of the Serbian Ministry of Defence visited the Czech Republic for bilateral defence consultations.
During the meeting at the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, Colonel Milan Konjikovac, Acting Chief of the Department for International Military Cooperation and Oplustil Josef, Head of Defence Policy and Strategy Department stated that the bilateral military cooperation between the two defence ministries is good, but that there is enough room for its improvement, considering the achieved level of relations between the two countries and the interest of the defence systems.Analyzing the present cooperation, Colonel Konjikovac stressed that the quality of realized activities shows that the Czech Republic is one of the most significant partners of the Republic of Serbia in the field of defence, even with the more difficult financing of international military cooperation activities in the last two years. He reminded that the greater part of activities was realized during the two mandates of the Czech Republic as the contact embassy for Serbia’s cooperation with NATO, where the Czech Republic has done a lot to promote Euro-integrations and to finance the reform of the defence system with trust funds of the Partnership for Peace program.
He conveyed his belief that the cooperation will be continued in the future period in main fields – military education and cadet exchange, CBRN, logistics and standardization. Great cooperation has been established between the two defence universities, and improving cooperation in the field of CBRN is possible with a more intensive exchange of instructors and their engagement in courses at the Regional CBRN Center in Krusevac and the Joint CBRN Center of Excellence in Viskovo. Moreover, the Ministry of Defence is interested in improving cooperation with the International Logistic Coordination Center and in engaging in defined “smart defence” projects.
Oplustil conveyed the readiness of the Czech Republic to share its practices in the domain of security and defence aspects of the accession to the European Union, and in engagement in the Joint Security and Defence Policy and EU combat groups. They are open to participation of the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Serbia in the Multinational Center for Air Force Training, where the Czech Republic is the leading country. He expressed his belief that members of the Armed Forces of Serbia will continue to contribute to preparation activities and the execution of the exercise “APABLE LOGISTICIAN 2015”.Both sides confirmed their dedication to the continuity of meetings on a ministry level, in order to define strategic guidelines for improvement of cooperation in the field of defence.
At the end of the meeting, they discussed prepositions for activities for the Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan for 2015.
