03.07.2024.
President Vučić Attends Session of Expanded Board of Chief of General Staff
Today, President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces Aleksandar Vučić, together with Prime Minister Miloš Vučević and Minister of Defence Bratislav Gašić, attended the session of expanded Board of the Chief of General Staff held in the barracks “Banjica 2” in Belgrade.
At the session of the expanded Board, led by the Chief of General Staff General Milan Mojsilović, the participants analysed the current security situation in the country and surroundings, and they also talked about key tasks of the Serbian Armed Forces and further enhancement of operational capabilities.
In his address following the session, President Vučić pointed out that the analysis focused on issues in the previous work that required improvement, as well as the security threats and the situation in the region, and he added that certain decisions were to be passed accordingly.
- The equipment and arms, as well as ordnance of the Serbian Armed Forces are being modernised and their number increased. We are not satisfied with manning, particularly in the north of Serbia. There are many challenges, great powers have gathered in the region for various reasons, from larger forces of neighbouring countries to a huge number of NATO troops in Kosovo and Metohija. We count on the good cooperation with KFOR forces and NATO troops, and we believe that it will contribute to the stabilisation of circumstances in Kosovo and Metohija - President Vučić stated pointing out that the European Union had allocated strategic reserves in the framework of its mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina deployed in territories of Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. He expressed his belief that those reserves would not be used in any way against the Serbian people and Serbia.
According to President Vučić, increased aircraft activity has been detected, of both manned and unmanned aircraft, aimed at conducting reconnaissance in Serbia without crossing our borders.
- We have detected flights of Albanian “Bayraktars” from Đakovica on 5th and 20th June on 5,800 metre altitude that were intent on conducting the reconnaissance of Serbian Armed Forces positions. Furthermore, Swedish and Germain aeroplanes are producing the so-called Lidar imaging, not from the territory controlled by the Serbian Armed Forces but from other territories that are not under its effective control. They are taking high precision images because of the presence of security and military forces of Serbia in the territory of central Serbia - the president of the Republic stated.
He said that everyone had to work more and better, and to send a cleared deterring message to every potential aggressor on our country.
- Our defence industry factories will have to work more. We will have to increase the number of people in the Serbian Armed Forces who are capable of helping the country in its potential defence. We have been investing a lot of money, and the salaries of our soldiers have never been higher. The basic salary is not a realistic pay, since the real ones are 40 or 50 percent higher than that. The salaries are very high, Serbia has been investing a lot of money, and we demand the highest level of preparedness, morale and capabilities for potential defence of the country and for the overall deterrence of aggressors. Serbia desires and it will always desire peace, and it will protect it, but in order to preserve the peace we will have to have armed forces strong enough to deter any potential adversary - President Vučić concluded.
