On the first day of his visit to Serbia, Chairman of the European Union Military Committee General Mikhail Kostarakos met with Chief of Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubisa Dikovic at Banjica 2 barracks in Belgrade.
They discussed the current regional and global political and security situation, reads a statement released by the Ministry of Defence.
Chairman of the European Union Military Committee General Mikhail Kostarakos expressed his pleasure over the opportunity to discuss common strategic goals of Serbia and the EU with general Dikovic.
“The EU, being a global actor, plays a very strong role in common security and defence policy to which it applies a comprehensive approach. Through our new Global Strategy, we have set up a framework for our future activities,” Kostarakos said, recalling about the three strategic priorities of the EU – protection of Europe, capacity building and crisis management.
The statement from the Ministry of Defence reads that General Kostarakos expressed appreciation for Serbia’s key role in and its contribution to regional stability, reminding that Serbia has already established its place as a partner of the EU Military Committee which highly appreciates Serbia’s involvement in various EU missions and the HELBROC battlegroup.
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“I would like to seize this opportunity to commend members of the Serbian armed forces for their professionalism, commitment and knowledge. We are grateful to the Serbian leadership for deploying its troops to our operations and missions. This is another proof that the EU cannot be fully integrated as a union without Serbia,” General Kostarakos said.
General Dikovic said that “our goal is to become a part of the EU security structure despite not being an EU member” and recalled that Serbian troops were already taking part in four out of six missions conducted by the EU worldwide.
The Chief of Staff went on to say that “all of this indicates that the security system of the Republic of Serbia is fully committed to and supporting strategic and political goals of the country to join the European Union,” General Dikovic said and added that “nearly all procedures surrounding Serbia’s engagement in HELBROC have been carried out. Both HELBROC members and EU Member States support our effort to build capacity to play an active and equal part in the battlegroup by 2020.”
A year ago in Brussels, General Dikovic signed a Note on the Accession of the Republic of Serbia to the Technical Agreement on the establishment of HELBROC battlegroup. On that occasion, Serbian Ministry of Defence expressed readiness to take part in HELBROC battlegroup with one Military Police platoon, a civil-military cooperation team and up to five staff officers in the battlegroup Force Command. The signature of the Note ensured full participation of the Serbian armed forces in the battlegroup, once again confirming Serbia’s commitment to common security and defence policy of the EU. HELBROC battlegroup is made up of Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia.
Tomorrow, on the second day of his visit, General Kostarakos will meet with Ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs, Aleksandar Vulin and Ivica Dacic, and attend the demonstration Freedom 2017 taking place at Batajnica airport.
