14.10.2016.

Prime Minister visits 63rd Parachute Battalion

Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, Minister of Defence, Zoran Djordjevic, and Minister of Interior, Nebojsa Stefanovic, have visited today members of the 63rd Parachute Battalion of the Special Army Brigade. Prime Minister and the ministers were welcomed at the Nis airport by Chief of General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Ljubisa Dikovic, Army Commander Lieutenant General Milosav Simovic, Commander of the Special Army Brigade, Brigadier General Zoran Velickovic, Deputy Commander of the 98th Aviation Brigade, Colonel Dejan Vasiljevic, and other officers of the Serbian Armed Forces. Commander of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Nenad Zonic, introduced the Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic to the infrastructure of the Parachute Battalion, while members of the battalion demonstrated segments of training and performed attractive demo jumps.

At the beginning of his address, Prime Minister Vucic reminded that brother of Lieutenant Colonel Nenad Zonic, Commander of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, died heroically defending the homeland and that he continued the bright family tradition, advocating and fighting for his country, and that he did a lot for the parachute battalion. "Paratroopers achieve excellent results - Aleksandar Vucic said – The job of the state is to provide more and better parachutes. We have already earmarked the funds in agreement with the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, so that you will get ten new sporting and a total of fifty new parachutes, you will get optoelectronic means and the ballistic protection. What is most important is to do more manning, for you to have more personnel, and you can count on it. We have agreed at the highest level to strengthen our special units and Special Forces in every way and therefore we will have Special Brigade in Pancevo, specially reinforced and a parachute battalion additionally reinforced. We need forces that can react quickly, to be the first to receive the strikes and first to quickly and forcefully take action against a potential aggressor. This is where we are going to invest the money, we will not save money, of course, there follows also an increase in salaries of soldiers as much as we can, but it is not little and it will be certainly more than it was the last time."

At the end of his speech, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic thanked the paratroopers that they are protecting our country, and then he had lunch with the officers and soldiers of the 63rd Parachute Battalion of the Special Army Brigade. On that occasion, Commander of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Nenad Zonic, thanked the Prime Minister for visiting the unit and for honouring them by coming on the day of the paratroopers and the patron Saint’s day of the unit, Intercession of the Theotokos, as well as for the investments and the support provided to the paratroopers in order to successfully perform all their assignments.