16.02.2015.
Meeting of ministers Gasic and Jolevski on the sidelines of a Joint Session of the governments of Serbia and Macedonia
The defense ministers of Serbia and Macedonia, Bratislav Gasic and Zoran Jolevski discussed bilateral defense cooperation on the sidelines of a joint meeting of the two countries’ governments that was held in Skopje.
During the talks, they exchanged views on global and regional political and security situation. Both sides expressed gratitude for the support in European integrations and stressed the importance of regional cooperation. The interlocutors stated that cooperation in the field of defence is well-developed and that, given the potentials and interests, efforts should be made to improve it even more. They expressed their satisfaction with the organization of the first bilateral defense consultations between the Defense Ministries and the signing of a bilateral military cooperation plan for 2015.Minister Gasic introduced his interlocutor to the results of the reform of the defence system. He conveyed his hope that the potential will be fully utilized in the future in military educational, military economic and cooperation in the field of public relations, where, as a result of bilateral defence consultations, after a long time, a solution was found for the continuation of cooperation with the Regional Center for Public Relations in Skopje. Gasic restated the interest for intensification of regional cooperation in the field of military medicine, cooperation through specialist training in the fields of CBRN, logistics and aviation, and the need for joint preparation of units for emergency situations.
Minister Jolevski conveyed his belief that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the two military academies will create a good foundation for qualitative improvement of cooperation in the field. Jolevski invited Minister Gasic to pay an official visit to the Republic of Macedonia in the second half of 2015.
Both sides agreed that the quality of cooperation in the field of defence has been greatly improved by high level visits and expressed their expectation that such trend will continue in the future period as well, especially through regular meetings between the ministers of defence and the heads of general staffs.
