Belgrade Insists NATO-Backed 2018 Drills is Regional Initiative

On Tuesday, Serbian media reported that the country's first joint military drills with NATO would be held on Serbian soil in October 2018. Vulin, however, clarified that this was a regional initiative, launched in 2013.

"So far, this regional initiative has been implemented in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Jordan, and next year will be implemented here [in Serbia]. These are command-and-staff drills… which have been previously held on the territory of our country. The first such drills were held in 2010. They are not NATO exercises but rather a regional initiative," Vulin said, as quoted in a Defense Ministry statement.

The defense minister stressed that Serbia was a neutral country and would hold military exercises "with anybody from whom it can learn something," be it NATO or the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

In June, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the country's military neutrality, declared in December 2007, would not hinder Belgrade from further developing cooperation with NATO within the framework of the Partnership for Peace.

Serbia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO was launched in March 2015. In 2013, Serbia’s parliamentary delegation was granted observer status by the Russia-backed CSTO.

REGEX is a regional exercise, supported by NATO's Allied Joint Force Command in Naples. This year, it is to be hosted by Jordan.
 (Sputnik)
9/8/17