24.12.2019.
Minister Vulin: Amendments to the law will ensure more efficient management and functioning of the Serbian Armed Forces
In the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, in addition to the Defense and National Security Strategies, the Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin also explained the proposals for the Amendments to the Law on the Serbian Armed Forces, the Proposal of Decision on the Use of the Serbian Armed Forces and Other Security Forces in Multinational Operations beyond the Borders of the Republic of Serbia and the Bill on Ratification of the Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of Serbia and the Czech Republic on Defense Cooperation.
Minister Vulin said that the amendments to the law were made in order to regulate certain issues further and in a more precise manner and thus ensure more efficient management and functioning of the Serbian Armed Forces.
“In this way, we believe that we will preserve and further enhance the functional and operational capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces and create the conditions for a better position of its professional members, especially professional soldiers, officers and NCOs for a certain period of time.”
Amendments to the law provide for the reinstatement of the rank of Sergeant 1st Class and Captain 1st Class, and respective rank in river units. For the purpose of quality guidance through the service in the Serbian Armed Forces, an amendment is adopted defining the time spent in the rank of Lieutenant, Captain and Captain 1st Class, which is necessary for promotion to the immediate higher rank.The age of admission to professional military service is increased – 40 years for the NCOs and 45 years for officers. The range of persons who may be admitted to professional military service if they have adequate military training with weapons and who have acquired the appropriate knowledge and skills to perform the duties of a professional military person is expanding.
The Serbian Armed Forces, like any other institution in our country, must be made as appealing as possible to as many people as possible.
Promotion into the initial rank of a non-commissioned officer for the pupils of the Military Vocational High School and a Mixed Military School is also specified. “We almost extinguished, during the DOS government, secondary military education. Secondary Vocational Military Schools were abolished in 2005. You abandoned the Air Force. You had planes, radars, air defense, but you had abolished the education for people who will maintain those planes, radars and air defense. It is up to us to decide for ourselves why this was done. It was reinstated in 2015 and now, after four years, we have the first 19 boys and girls already deployed to our airports and taking care of our assets. However, we have gone without educating these boys and girls for 10 years. Now we are trying to make up for it. We are projecting for the way to enable these children to acquire their first NCO ranks and to organize education for NCOs in the future. We do not have an NCO school. In this way, the children will be able to choose their careers in the Serbian Armed Forces, to become NCOs immediately after graduation, and in the future we plan to organize an NCO school, Minister Vulin said.
The new legal provisions specify the termination of professional military service during the states of war or emergency. It is provided that a professional military officer may not terminate professional military service during the states of war or emergency, except in strictly defined cases. “It will no longer happen that a professional military person, who has been trained and prepared for his entire working life for tasks in wartime or emergency, following the proclamation of these states, simply submits a request for the termination of military service and leaves his Armed Forces. This will no longer be possible,” emphasized Minister Vulin.
The amendments provide for the establishment of military-disciplinary courts and prosecutors at the Ministry of Defense. In this way, full independence of the military-disciplinary bodies is established in a strategic way when deciding on the responsibility of the professional members of the military.
Presenting the Proposal of Decision on the Use of the Serbian Armed Forces and Other Security Forces in Multinational Operations beyond the Borders of the Republic of Serbia, Minister Vulin said that Serbia is a country capable of exporting security and able to assist, wherever it is difficult, where people are suffering , and to best represent her policies, but also her organizational capacity through her military and to demonstrate in the best way what Serbia is capable of. “We stand before you because the National Assembly decides on the use of the Serbian Armed Forces and other security forces in multinational operations outside borders of the Republic of Serbia, and we come with a change that states that the National Assembly – once it has adopted the decisions to participate in the multinational peacekeeping operations – does not have to do it again unless the mandate or title or the nature of the operation itself has changed. Therefore, no one can involve us in anything that the National Assembly will not meticulously study, look at and say whether it is suitable or not. At the moment, we are participating in nine peacekeeping operations, five of which are under United Nations command and four under European Union command. This is peacekeeping, not combat operations,” the Minister of Defense said.
The amendments to the law provide for an obligation for professional members of the Serbian Armed Forces participating in multinational operations to remain in professional military service for a prescribed period of time after returning from a multinational operation. “Having returned from the peacekeeping operation, they will have to spend three times more time in the Serbian Armed Forces than they did in the mission,” said Minister Vulin, adding that they invest in their training, equipment, the best ones are sent, and when such men leave the Armed Forces, they lose the men whose experience was invested into.
A draft law establishing an agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the Czech Republic on defense cooperation was also presented. It was signed in Belgrade on 11 September this year. “It has been a long time since the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia last signed a similar agreement. It is a type agreement, which regulates mutual relations, provides a legal framework for cooperation between the two Ministries, or two Armed Forces, in accordance with the interests and needs of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces and the State of Serbia. This is something we want to sign with as many countries as possible; it costs you nothing, and it obliges you to do what you signed, and you will sign what is in the interest of your country. I sincerely look forward and feel infinitely proud to participate with you in this historic day, and that the State of Serbia is voicing herself clearly and loudly. That in this way she determines the direction in which not only her Armed Forces, her security system, but also the direction in which her policy and her views on major national issues will develop,” said Minister Vulin.
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