Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia
 
20.08.2015.

Minister Gasic and Ambassador Kirby visit Bujanovac and Presevo



Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and US Ambassador to Serbia Michael Kirby attended today the completion of a joint project of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ohio National Guard "Humanitarian Assistance" in Bujanovac and visited the collective centre for migrants in Presevo.

In the period from 3rd to 20th August, the Serbian soldiers and the US guardsmen implemented the project of extensive reconstruction of a preschool institution "Nasa radost" (Our joy) and the School for elementary musical education. The opening of the renovated facilities was attended by the Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Jovica Draganic, US Defence Attaché to the Republic of Serbia Colonel Taft Blackburn, president of the Municipality of Bujanovac Nagip Arifi and other officials.

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic thanked the US Embassy for the invested funds for the materials and to the members of the Ohio National Guard for their work, together with members of the Serbian Armed Forces on the renovation of the facilities.

- This is just one of the planned 132 activities in which the Serbian Armed Forces and the United States Armed Forces are jointly involved. This is a kind of preparation for the engineer units of the Serbian Armed Forces for their possible participation in peacekeeping missions in certain areas in the world as early as in 2018 or 2019 – Minister Gasic said.

Ambassador Kirby pointed out that the United States Armed Forces European Command has provided 130 thousand dollars for the project and that the members of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Ohio National Guard did all their best to successfully implement the project.

- This is an example of the team work and what Serbia and the United States could do together. I am particularly pleased that young people and children can benefit from these two projects and that we provided significant assistance to the local community in Bujanovac. There are still many things we are going to work on with the Serbian Armed Forces – Ambassador Kirby said.

During their stay in Bujanovac, Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and Ambassador Michael Kirby talked with president of the Municipality of Bujanovac Nagip Arifi. On this occasion, the Defence Minister promised that the Serbian Armed Forces would provide water tanks for the Municipality of Bujanovac, thus helping to overcome the difficult situation with the water supply due to the increased number of migrants.

The "Humanitarian Assistance" was implemented according to the bilateral military cooperation plan between the Serbian Armed Forces and the US Armed Forces European Command. The Serbian Armed Forces and the Ohio National Guard employed forty members each, while the Municipality of Bujanovac took on the part of the logistics.

Continuing their visit to Southern Serbia, Minister Gasic and Ambassador Kirby visited the collective centre for migrants in Presevo. They were introduced to the conditions in which the migrants live, talked to them and considered in detail the problems they encounter. Migrants pointed out that, in contrast to all the countries through which they passed, in Serbia they received full attention, maximum fair and humane attitude and great help from people who are in direct contact with them.

- In accomplishing this task you can see the team work of all the ministries of the Government of the Republic of Serbia while the Ministry of the Interior and the Serbian Armed Forces are working 24 hours a day and take care of all aspects of the security of the citizens of the Republic of Serbia and the migrants", the Defence Minister said in Presevo.

US Ambassador Kirby pointed out that hospitality has had a long tradition in Serbia and that he was glad that it was shown in the situation with migrants.

Asked by reporters to comment on European Union criticism of a joint military exercise of the Serbian Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic said: "Someone allowed themselves to stay aside regarding the issues of using Cyrillic script and minority rights in Croatia while something that was planned as early as in 2014 suddenly becomes very important issue. The Serbian Armed Forces has signed agreements on bilateral military cooperation with over 60 countries; it is neutral and builds good relations with a great number of countries, especially the four pillars of our foreign policy – the USA, China, Russia and the European Union".

The same issue was addressed by the US Ambassador Michael Kirby who pointed out on that occasion; "We are pleased to have joint exercises with the Serbian Armed Forces, we have done a lot on the South Base and helped the Serbian Armed Forces to participate in peacekeeping missions. Serbia is a free country and may collaborate with whomever it thinks it should."

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