05.03.2019.
Meeting of State Secretary Živković with General Juneau
Today, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Aleksandar Živković met Deputy Commander of the Allied Joint Forces Command in Naples, Lieutenant General Christian Juneau. The topic of the meeting was the cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and NATO.
At the meeting, State Secretary Živković assessed that the Republic of Serbia cooperated with its partners in the West and East in utterly transparent manner and in line with the policy of military neutrality. In that context, the cooperation with NATO under the auspices of the Partnership for Peace Programme represents an optimal framework for the achievement of security goals and enhancement of defence capacities.
The Ministry of Defence extremely appreciates the contribution of the Allied Joint Forces Command Naples to the realisation of cooperation between the Republic of Serbia, primarily with regards to cooperation instruments oriented towards building and strengthening operational capabilities and achieving interoperability of declared units with the forces of the Allies.Also, the concern of the Republic of Serbia was expressed over the developments in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. In this respect, the position of the Republic of Serbia is that KFOR is the most responsible for the maintenance of peace and security in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and that it represents the only partner of the Serbian Armed Forces in securing the Administrative line with our southern province. Hence it is crucial that KFOR approached responsibly to execution of its tasks by consistently applying UN SC Resolution 1244 and exclusively in keeping with the mandate assigned.
It was stated at the meeting that the engagement of certain NATO member states in relation to unilateral and utterly irresponsible moves of Priština, especially when it came to transformation the so called “Kosovo Security Forces and essentially the establishment of the so called “Kosovo Armed Forces”, was very concerning and unacceptable, particularly because such engagement steps out of the mission mandate and is thus in conflict with the international law.
