25.07.2018.

Chinese Minister of Defence Wei Fenghe: Serbia has magnificent armed forces and people

The envoy of the president and supreme commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is on a multi-day visit to China, has been welcomed today by his Chinese counterpart, General Wei Fenghe, with the highest military honours.

Offering the Serbian delegation a cordial welcome, Minister of National Defence of the PR China, Wei Fenghe said that he greatly respects the Serbian Armed Forces expressing his admiration for the way the Serbian Armed Forces had opposed the aggression of the NATO Alliance. He pointed out that “the Serbian Armed Forces is a magnificent army, and the Serbian people are magnificent people”.

Minister Wei Fenghe said that he was sure that Minister Vulin's visit will contribute to strengthening the friendship between the two countries and relations between the two armies as well as the cooperation in the field of defence industry.

He expressed his great personal respect for the president of the Republic of Serbia and supreme commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Alekandar Vučić, and his principled and consistent policy when it comes to attitude towards PR China, international law, the One Belt One Road initiative, when it comes to all those initiatives which are being implemented by China and where it relies on Serbia's assistance.

Conveying his impressions from the meeting, Minister Vulin said that for China Serbia is neither a partner that is measured based on the number of inhabitants nor its importance is valued based on its geographical distance.

- China regards Serbia as a strategic partner, as a country that deserves respect, which deserves every support, Minister Vulin said.

The Serbian and the Chinese ministers agreed that the cooperation between the two armies is at its highest level ever.

- We have never had such fruitful and valuable cooperation before, and now we will continue and enhance it. We will have opportunity to learn and share knowledge with the Chinese Army when it comes to cyber warfare. The threat coming from cyberspace is certainly something we do not know enough about, and China is one of the most technologically powerful countries in the world, and their support will really mean a lot to us to prepare ourselves for completely new threats we know little or nothing about. We will promote cooperation in the field of mutual education, so more Chinese officers will be coming to study with us, as we will send our staff to study at the most prestigious universities in China, but also we will also exchange instructors for training of special units getting to know each others systems and modes of operation of the most elite units of our armies. The Serbian Armed Forces and the Army of the People's Republic of China certainly have something to cooperate in, Minister Vulin emphasized.

He added that the meeting confirmed that all doors in China were open to us and that policy, as well as the personal relationship of our president and the Chinese president, resulted in Chinese perception of Serbia as a sincere friend to whom it is ready to help in any field.