On the 11th October 2017 Commander EUFOR, Major General Anton Waldner welcomed the Minister of Defence of BiH Marina Pendeš and Minister of Security of BiH Dragan Mektić to EUFOR HQ, Camp Butmir, Sarajevo for the official opening ceremony of “Quick Response 2017”.
On parade at the ceremony were the Intermediate Reserves Forces from the United Kingdom and the NATO Force Tactical Reserves from Kosovo as well as troops from EUFOR’s Multinational Battalion, comprising of Hungarian and Turkish soldiers. Joining the soldiers were platoons from SIPA and the Border Police including a K9 unit.
Major General Anton Waldner addressed the parade and VIP’s saying: “I want to pay a special welcome to the Units on parade which are not normally part of EUFOR, namely the 1 Rifles from the United Kingdom and NATO’s Force Tactical Reserves from Kosovo, and the participants from the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are collectively unified in this exercise with the primary aim of ensuring security.”
The Minister of Defence, Marina Pendeš added: “One of the most important tasks of any army is to prepare for various situations and security threats, the Ministry of Defence and myself personally, will advocate ensuring even more favourable conditions for organising and conducting of training activities as a very important precondition for the development of our Armed Forces.”
Dragan Mektić the Minister of Security said “We want to send a clear message to our partners as well as to the citizens of the BiH that we have ready and trained police forces that can quickly and efficiently respond to all the security threats ”
“Quick Response 2017” is a EUFOR-led peace support operation exercise. It will take place 11 – 15 October in the areas of Sarajevo, Pazarić and Kalinovik. This will be the first time BiH law enforcement agencies, Armed Forces of BiH and EUFOR will exercise together in realistic scenarios, in order to test their respective contingency plans.
Quick Response 2017 will increase interoperability both between EUFOR forces and the Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies. EUFOR maintains the capacity to react in any area of Bosnia and Herzegovina to any localised security challenge, if needed, and that EUFOR will maintain a mechanism whereby reserve forces may be deployed in a timely manner in order to support the BiH authorities maintain a safe and secure environment.
