06.12.2016.
Meeting of Serbian and Italian Chiefs of General Staff
General Ljubisa Dikovic, the Serbian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff, has met today in Belgrade the Italian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff General Claudio Graziano.Talking about the meeting with the Italian counterpart, General Dikovic emphasized that General Graziano is a friend of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces and reminded that Italy belongs to the countries who are friends of Serbia having the developed political, economic and military-military relations.
“This is a chance for General Graziano and me to analyse situation and to define the areas of our future cooperation of mutual interest, having in mind that all conditions are fulfiled. This will be an opportunity to exchange experience and attitudes to security risks in this area and beyond, especially bearing in mind that Italy and Serbia are maybe the most important factors of security in this area. Thus they can influence stability regarding this issue by their actions”, General Dikovic stressed and added that for years the Italian generals have been the commanders of the international forces in Kosovo and Metohija, which are responsible for order and peace and give a great contribution to stability. This task is excellently performed by the Italian contingent.
According to General Dikovic, the focus of this visit is on the definition of future collaboration in the domain of military-economic and military-medical cooperation, as well as joint exercises and training of the members of two armies. They also talked about the cooperation of our armies in the mission UNIFIL in Lebanon, where a part of our members is engaged within the Italian contingent.General Graziano assessed that the relation of two armies had been consolidated during the execution of many tasks so far.
“General Dikovic has recently visited Italy, and today I am here to confirm and strengthen friendship and cooperation between our armed forces”, General Graziano stressed and reminded of the fact that the tradition of good cooperation between the Serbian and Italian Armed Forces goes back to the First World War.
He emphasized that cooperation between European countries which are close in cultural terms like Serbia and Italy is the priority.
“We are facing many challenges, starting with migrant crisis and illegal entrance and I think that the involvement of Serbia in solving this issue is extremely important. In this international and inter-European context, I endorse the cooperation between Serbia and Italy, and this relation can be followed by other neighbouring countries”, General Graziano emphasized and added that a good cooperation is significant for better common security in the future.During two-day visit to our country, the Italian delegation led by General Graziano would visit the Ministry of Defence and the Special brigade and attend tomorrow the send off ceremony for the contingent of the Serbian Armed Forces to the mission UNIFIL.
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