The NATO EADRCC field exercise “Serbia 2018” will be held in the period from 7 to 12 October, in which the representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina will take part with 37 members of the FBiH Civil Protection Administration, who will be engaged in devised scenario containing incidents after a powerful earthquake (6.7 Richter scale), at a depth of 10 kilometers, which hit the wider area of the City of Belgrade, the municipality of Mladenovac.
Interoperability in international disaster response operations between Serbia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a good example of how to develop the partnership in the future, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.
Vucic noted that Serbia is a militarily neutral country and will remain so, but said it was ready to cooperate with NATO, disregarding a “painful and tough history for the sake of citizens”, referring to the NATO bombing of what was formerly Yugoslavia in 1999.
“We are here to show how successful we are in coordination, cooperation and readiness to share responsibility and help each other to cope with consequences of disasters, as well as to prevent them. Moreover, the experience of other countries in this area is of extreme importance for Serbia,” Vucic said, according to a press release from his cabinet.
Thanking Stoltenberg for organizing the exercise, Vucic stressed that there was no pressure during their conversations on Serbia’s independent decision-making, and that Serbia wishes to nurture good relations with NATO, alongside its ties with Russia and China.
NATO stated that the aim of the exercise taking place in and around the Serbian city of Mladenovac, until Thursday is “to improve interoperability in international disaster response operations” with earthquake as a choice scenario.
Serbia and NATO began cooperation in 2006, and this exercise will strengthen their readiness to cope with disasters, as well as jointly develop new technologies, better communication channels, and joint command, Stoltenberg said.
Vucic and Stoltenberg exchanged opinions on the future development of relations between Serbia and NATO and agreed that with the disaster response exercise opened on Monday “the two sides demonstrated how they can work together and strengthen their partnership in the best possible way”.
(Source: ST, Xinhua, photo: the Greek Observer)
