24.11.2017.

Visit to the Army Training Center in Požarevac

Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, accompanied by the Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Ljubiša Diković, has visited today the Army Training Centre in the "General Pavle Jurišić Šturm" barracks in Požarevac. During today's visit, Minister Vulin has also met with Mayor Bane Spasović.

After visiting the Training Center in Požarevac, Minister Vulin pointed out that the Serbian Armed Forces is getting better equipped, the Serbian Armed Forces is acquiring the state-of-art weapon systems, but the Serbian Armed Forces, above all, takes care that our member is trained at the highest possible level.

- That is why, in the next year, we will put special emphasis on improving training, on even stronger training and, of course, on the improved physical fitness of each of our members. The Serbian Armed Forces works with its members and every member of our team deserves maximum attention, deserves the opportunity to be trained according to the highest world standards, just as it is now, and equipped according to the highest world standards. The Ministry of Defence, within its competencies, will do everything to ensure, with the entire Government of the Republic of Serbia, that the Serbian Armed Forces and every member thereof be taken care of also in the material sense - Minister Vulin emphasized.

Addressing the gathered members of the Training Centre, the Minister of Defence pointed out that in these times in which some other values are placed above love for the homeland, you have shown by your example how much you love your country, how much you want to be part of it and to be with it when it is difficult, just where it is the hardest, to prepare to defend your country, safeguard it, leave it better than you have found it so that those who come after you be proud of you, just as we all are and can and must be proud of the heroes who created and defended this army and this country.

- This country is proud of its Armed Forces, it is proud of its role, it is proud of the way it fought in the wars that it did not ask for and which it did not wage and which it did not provoke, but it had to be there, because those who are larger and more powerful thought that they could decide for us. Thanks to you, thanks to those who are yet to come, we can say that we decide on our own destiny, that we are militarily neutral, and that we can determine who our friends are, while our enemies choose us by themselves, anyhow - Minister Vulin emphasized.

I am proud of you, Minister Vulin added, because you are making efforts, learning, working, fighting and walking the way those before you did.

- There are no Serbian soldiers who this country is not proud of, there is not a single participation in wars that we are not proud of, and the wars were imposed on us and we waged wars because we wanted to be alone on our own property and not on anything else. Proud of you, because the country you serve is able to appreciate and know how to love its soldier, just as its soldier appreciates and loves it. We will try to make the material position of each of you, each member of the Serbian Armed Forces, better, to get a higher salary and a faster to obtain apartment, to allow your child to come to kindergarten as fast as possible, to enable military education to be wider and more accessible to all. We will make efforts and work and I believe that you feel that your country, and your government and your supreme commander sincerely love and appreciate and respect, but more than anything, what cannot be calculated and what cannot be determined is the pride that we feel when we see your uniform, when we see your eyes, when we know that you are there for us, when we know that Serbia will never be alone. Long live the Serbian Armed Forces! Long live Serbia! - Minister Vulin said.

According to General Diković, members of the Serbian Armed Forces pay great attention to the development and maintenance of combat capability and in accordance with the purpose and tasks of the armed forces.

- I would say that training is one of the two most important factors of that combat capability of the military, in addition to doctrine, education and infrastructure, arms and military equipment. The essence of the training is, in short, that a soldier or a military formation, regardless of the formation, is able to experience everything on the battlefield and perform combat tasks, first to experience it and feel it on training, and therefore, to prepare in the best way how to act and how to behave in a concrete combat situation", General Diković emphasized, adding that today's reports confirm that the Army Training Center possesses intellectual and material capacities for individual and collective training in accordance with the requirements of the modern way of employment of the army in all missions.

General Diković also gave credit to all members of the Serbian Armed Forces who stoically stud up to all the efforts of the economic recovery of the country.

- These efforts are already starting to produce results and next year is a year of better status, especially regarding the status and standards of the members of the Serbian Armed Forces. I would also like to commend the members of the Army Training Center and soldiers on voluntary military service for the high motivation they showed during the realisation of the training content - General Diković concluded.

The Mayor of Požarevac, Bane Spasojević, expressed satisfaction with the fact that the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces have confidence in that town.

- For the citiyens of Požarevac, for our fellow citizens, the Armed Forces is a sacred thing, and I think that we prove it literally at every step by the hospitality towards our army. Local government is doing everything in its power to help this garrison here in Požarevac, and so we will continue", Spasojevic said.

Minister Vulin and General Diković with their associates also visited the memorial room of the Training Centre and the refurbished gym, and attended the demonstration of training activity and presentation of nutrition in nature.