09.02.2020.
President Vučić: I am satisfied that following difficult reforms, over a short period, in the last five years, that we succeeded in restoring and doing so much
- Congratulations to the Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff on being moved up by the Americans, namely, putting the Serbian Armed Forces in 65 th place in the world, according to the strength of our firepower. That was in some way expected. It was difficult because Croatia has tremendously strong Armed Forces, so I am satisfied that following difficult reforms, over a short period, in the last five years, that we have succeeded in restoring and doing so much – said the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić who, accompanied by the Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin and the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović, made an unannounced visited to the members of the Serbian Armed Forces at the “Topčider” barracks and had lunch with them at the mess hall.
- I am pleased to see that people have at least two to three pairs of boots, combined summer and winter, and I believe that by the end of June, by the religious holiday of Vidovdan, we will be able to ensure that each soldier has four pairs of boots, leather ones, two pairs of ankle boots and one more pair with combination of leather and textile. We will work on further ballistic protection of our soldiers, we will provide the armor, all this is made by our “Jumko” and produced by our factories; we will focus on providing a better sock fabric content in order to avoid the occurrence of disease. We are now doing something of a higher standard in order to be better equipped – said President Vučić.The key thing, President Vučić stressed, are the salaries of the members of the Serbian Armed Forces.
- I think the Generals, the Colonels and the Lieutenant Colonels are pleased. The problem is our soldiers, and our soldiers’ salaries. And those salaries are small, between 44.000 and 45.000 dinars, and we have to increase those salaries, and I don’t think General Mojsilović will object if we increase those lowest salaries, because Warrant Officers (OP-8) now have a basic salary of about 64.000 – said President Vučić, adding that the amount in question would be revealed later, but that one-time payments would have to be introduced for NCOs up to the level of Warrant Officers, and to the level of Captain with the officers; and especially for the soldiers in order to have more soldiers and better manningin the units, especially when it comes to Belgrade and Voivodina.
President Vučić emphasized that we have more and more weapons and that members of the unit at Topčider are also preparing for the introduction of “Miloš” armored combat vehicle.
- The situation is much better than it used to be, but it can and must be even better. In particular, we need to speed up the construction of apartments for soldiers, for people to see that they have a guaranteed future for themselves and their families and to overcome all bureaucratic problems both in the Government and local self-governments – stressed President Vučić and added that this would be insisted on and that he hoped that we would be even more successful in this.
Speaking about the results over the previous period, the President of the Republic recalled that the salaries of the members of the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Armed Forces were increased, the training of members of the Serbian Armed Forces was improved, as well as that 19 new well-armed helicopters were purchased, as well as the rocket system “Pantsir”.
At the end of his visit to the “Topčider” barracks, President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, once again congratulated the Minister of Defense and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, as well as all the members of the Serbian Armed Forces, on their efforts and wished them a good and peaceful year, for them to “work even harder and to train even better”, to have better equipment and be even stronger next year, and to be able to boast of the continued advancement of our Armed Forces and a better standard of living for the members of the Armed Forces and their families.President Vučić expressed satisfaction with the lunch served at the mess hallat the“Topčider” Barracks today, which had soldier beans on the menu. Prior to joining the Guards, 5th Military Police Battalion, and the members of the Training Command at the mess hall, President Vučić talked with them about the life and work in their units.
Today’s visit to the “Topčider” barracks also included Commander of the Guards, Major-General MilomirTodorović, Chief of the Operations Department, Major-General Želimir Glišovićand Chief of the Military Police Department, Brigadier General Rajko Milovanović.
