30.11.2023.
Representatives of Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces attend handover of Multinational Helicopter Centre in Portugal
Acting Assistant Minister for Defence Policy Predrag Bandić and a delegation from the Air Force and Air Defence led by Brigadier General Gordan Pavlović have attended the Multinational Helicopter Training Centre (MHTC) handover ceremony between the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the Centre member countries at Sintra Airbase in the Portuguese Republic.
The handover was carried out between Portugal’s Minister of Defence Helena Carreiras, who was the host of the ceremony, and EDA Chief Executive Jiří Šedivý, and the ceremony was also attended by Ambassador of Serbia to Portugal Ana Ilić. 
The Multinational Helicopter Training Centre headquartered in Sinatra Airbase near Lisbon is the result of work by a project team under the auspices of EDA, in which representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia have been taking part since 2018. By signing the Technical Agreement on February 2, 2022, Serbia was ranked among the founding members of the Multinational Helicopter Training Centre, on an equal footing with EU member states, which is the most concrete example of cooperation between Serbia and the European Defence Agency.Besides our country, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and Portugal are also signatories to the agreement.
Membership in this organization allows the Air Force and Air Defence members to attend helicopter training courses as part of the Helicopter Exercise Programme (HEP). The training will be conducted using state-of-the-art tactical simulators, which is of great importance for the purposeful use of the Serbian Armed Forces’ helicopter units, whose equipment and personnel training have been on the rise in recent years. The first cycle of training, in which members of the Serbian Armed Forces will also take part, is planned for the beginning of next year.