01.12.2017.
Enhancement of the Military Cooperation with the United Kingdom
Today, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin met Mark Lancaster, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom.
The topics of the discussion were the activities of bilateral military cooperation conducted until that moment, and the initiation of new ones, and the current politico-security situation in the region and world.
The interlocutors established that the relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Serbia in the field of defence were at the same time the best segment of the overall bilateral relations of the two countries, which was particularly significant in the year when we marked 180th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.Minister Vulin pointed out that the focal areas of cooperation were military education, medicine, military-to-military cooperation, but he also stressed that the interest of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia was to enhance the existing areas of cooperation, develop new ones and initiate the cooperation in the areas of mutual interest. Recent visit by Commander of the First Division of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, Major General Ralph Wooddisse was evaluated as highly important, as well as the participation of the members of the Serbian Armed Forces in the competition “Cambrian Patrol 17” in the United Kingdom, and the forthcoming Regional PR Conference for the representatives of the public relations services and the representatives of regional media, which will was going to be organised by the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with the British side.
The minister of defence stressed that Serbia was military neutral and that it would continue behaving as such in the field of defence with all the countries and international organisations, in line with defined national interests and priorities of foreign policy.- Minister Vulin underscored his support to the continuation of the KFOR mission in Kosovo and Metohija and pointed out that Serbia highly appreciated the role of KFOR and the British armed forces that made part of it. He particularly stressed that Serbia deemed the establishment of the Armed Forces of Kosovo and Metohija utterly unacceptable and that the Resolution 1244 had clearly defined KFOR as the only armed Force.
While discussing the issues of security, it was concluded that the new security challenges, risks and threats in the form of terrorism, economic and energy dependence, as well as the uncontrolled migrations of the population from the crisis areas, demand raising every form of cooperation to the highest level possible.
