13.11.2014.
Minister Gasic
Minister of Defence Bratislav Gasic spoke with representatives of the Chinese media accredited in the Republic of Serbia on the occasion of the upcoming visit to PR China.In his interview with the International Chinese Radio, the Guangming Daily and the Central Chinese Television, Minister Gasic expressed great pleasure that he will visit the country with which the Republic of Serbia has traditionally close and friendly relations.
When asked about what he expects from his visit to China, the first official one since he was appointed Minister of Defence, Minister Gasic said that the visit will be comprised of concrete tasks which will strengthen the formally legal and regulative status of the two Defence Ministries.
- China and Serbia have traditionally good relations based on mutual respect and appreciation among the two nations. I expect that our relation will be raised to an even higher level during the visit, and that the bilateral military cooperation will move to a better and more dynamic path. Serbia highly appreciates China’s foreign policy as one of our important strategic partners and one of the four pillars of foreign politics of Serbia, which is based on abiding by the principles of peaceful coexistence and appreciation of all factors in international relations, which is show in China’s support for Serbia’s territorial integrity, primarily on the issues of the status of Kosovo and Metohija. Also, Serbia principally supports China’s policy, with the respect for the state’s stand in relation to resolving the issues of Taiwan, Tibbett and Xinjiang.
Minister of Defence thanked China for the donation and help to Serbia and its residents affected by this year’s grave floods of over three million yuans and stressed that a contract on the donation of nearly seven million yuans will be signed during his visit to the country. According to Minister Gasic, in March this year, the Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan was signed between Serbia and China which stressed the necessity of creating conditions for improvement of military economic and military medical cooperation, and military educational cooperation.- The Plan represents an “umbrella contract” that enables the expansion of cooperation in the future. Serbia has one of the best military academies in the world, and we wish to conduct student exchange based on reciprocity. This way, we would also exchange practices, which would help militaries of both states in achieving functional and operative capabilities. Moreover, the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade is one of the best, and an exchange of practices in military medicine between Serbian and Chinese medical teams is of great importance, and so is joint participation in peacekeeping operations in the role of exporters of security to other areas in the world – Minister of Defence stated, adding that Serbia can also be one of China’s important military economic partners with its military industry.
The visit of the Minister of Defence to one of the largest Asian countries precedes the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister to Belgrade in December, so the press representatives also wanted to hear about this visit’s significance for the relations of the two countries.- This is certainly an indicator of the high level of relations between the two countries which has already been confirmed with the Serbian Prime Minister’s visit to China in September this year. With its constructive, principled and responsible policy, Serbia has become one of the leaders in the region, and the reformative course that the Government of the Republic of Serbia has taken and the essential improvement of economic environment have been recognized by China which will open a broad specter of cooperation possibilities between the two states with the visit of its Prime Minister after 30 years. The Government of Serbia has placed its emphasis on the economic relations with China, because it is well-known that Serbia needs opening of new work places and factories. Serbia is a county of hard-working, capable and educated people, and we can certainly improve the relations between Serbia and China.
Minister Gasic stressed that the Serbian nation is small but proud and can learn a lot from the people of China, a vast and powerful country of good people who possess great wisdom.
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