04.12.2019.
Send-off ceremony for members of the Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment to the multinational operation ATALANTA
Members of the Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment were ceremoniously sent off from the Niš military airport ‘Sergeant Pilot Mihajlo Petrović’ to the ATALANTA multinational operation, today. The ceremony was attended by Special Brigade Commander Brigadier General Miroslav Talijan and his associates, members of the 63rd Parachute Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Boban Georgiev and family members of the detachment members.
Our peacekeepers will be engaged in a European Union mission in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia. It has been for the seventh time that the Serbian Armed Forces is sending the autonomous detachment to Operation ATALANTA, which began in 2008 due to the increased number of pirate attacks and emergence of serious security threats at the Horn of Africa.Brigadier General Miroslav Talijan handed over the war flag of the unit to the detachment commander Živko Bogdanović and emphasized that the engagement of members of the Special Brigade in the EU-mandated multinational operations under the Common Security and Defence Policy, the Republic of Serbia is integrating into this important area of activities of the European Union.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Georgiev, the preparations for the detachment were carried out in the Special Brigade and the River Fleet, and the team leader completed pre-deployment preparations in Spain. The engagement of our peacekeepers in this operation will last four months.