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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Number of Serbian Army soldiers in UN peacekeeping missions doubled

11 December 2010

Belgrade, 11 Dec 2010 ¬– Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac said today that there are no military threats to Serbia, but that there is a latent possibility that its safety might be endangered by individuals in Kosovo-Metohija.

Sutanovac said in an interview to Tanjug news agency that this year is better than the previous in terms of security and voiced hope that it will remain so in 2011.

The Defence Minister said that the Serbian Army has very good cooperation with KFOR in Kosovo-Metohija, and noted that meetings between the Chief of Staff of the Serbian Army and the KFOR commander are held regularly.

The KFOR commander is expected to visit Belgrade soon, Sutanovac stated and added that the Serbian Army Chief of Staff visited Pristina this autumn where he met with the KFOR commander.

We have contacts on daily operational level and I believe that it is very important for the safety of population, primarily non-Albanian one, to have a tight cooperation with the international community and all those who are involved in securing stability and safety of citizens of Kosovo-Metohija, Sutanovac said.

He pointed out that by opening the Jug base near Bujanovac, this part of Serbia got a modern military base which can hold up to 1,000 troops and pointed out that in this base, in addition to serving the ground safety zone, members of the Serbian Army and friendly armies that go to peacekeeping missions can be trained there.

Sutanovac said that Serbia has doubled the number of its soldiers in the UN peacekeeping missions since 2007, adding that Serbian peacekeepers will return from Chad in several days, where they are successfully completing the UN mission, initially as part of the Norwegian contingent and then independently.

On the other hand, the moment of signing a safety agreement with the EU is getting closer, which creates the possibility of taking part in civil-military missions both for police and army members, the Minister explained.

He underlined that negotiations are underway with Greece and France about the possibility of sending Serbian officers to ships of these countries’ fleets in some of the EU peacekeeping missions.

Taking part in peacekeeping missions is politically very important and in this way Serbia shows that it wants to be part of the modern world that is concerned with safety, not only within its borders, Sutanovac declared.

Speaking about Serbia’s participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace programme, he voiced hope that 2011 will be the year of stabilisation of relations within this programme.

He explained that for some time Serbia has been in a standstill in cooperation within the Partnership for Peace programme and in the year ahead of us Serbia will take advantage of all opportunities so that in 2012 this cooperation could reach its full capacity.

Sutanovac recalled that as of 1 January 2011 the Army of Serbia will officially become professional army and announced that next year, special attention will be devoted to training and development of professionals.

He said that the Serbian military industry concluded contracts worth $1.2 billion and that all plans regarding exports of weapons and the military industry have long been exceeded.

There are many countries, even some that are very far away, such as Uruguay and Brazil, that want to participate in the development of certain weapons and enter the third markets, the Minister concluded.