The Commander of NATO forces in Sarajevo, Brigadier General Walter Lord thinks that the BiH Armed Forces are clearly becoming more capable and professional with each passing day.
For his column on the portal European Education Center (eec.ba), General Lord said that BiH faces a lot of work to attain NATO membership, but that the job can be done.
‘’Given the benefits of NATO membership for your country, I believe that the job has to be done”, wrote Lord.
In countries and in missions of NATO and the UN outside the country, soldiers of the BiH Armed Forces provide an example everyday so that all citizens of this country can work successfully together for a common goal.
‘’It is true that the BiH Armed Forces do not have enough funding to always finish their tasks in the best way that they could. We cooperate with the Ministry of Defense to solve such issues, and in this way we try to improve the system of logistics and procurement. We are also very strongly committed to produce a comprehensive defense review in 2013’’, he said.
A review of defense will define the roles and missions of the BiH Armed Forces, coordinate available funding and legitimate military needs and define ways in which the Armed Forces have to modernize to establish the desired structures.
‘’While we work on reform of the defense structures and process in BiH, NATO headquarters in Sarajevo is aware of the fact that the majority of people think how preparations for NATO membership are based on defense reforms, which is not true’’, warned General Lord.
NATO expects from prospective members to conduct extensive political, economic, security and other judicial reforms. These reforms help countries to achieve better education, bigger economic competitiveness, better financial management and other benefits through achieving security and stability. This way, it could become a credible candidate for NATO membership.
“We all know that security is an important factor for investors and businesspeople in deciding where to invest”, said Lord, among other things.
