independent.mk <http://www.independent.mk/articles/34338/Serbia+Defense+Minister+Debunks+Be lief+that+Belgrade+Hopes+to+Join+NATO>
Serbia Defense Minister Debunks Belief that Belgrade Hopes to Join NATO - Independent.mk Serbia Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic Photo: Beta Interpretation of Serbia ratifying Status of Forces Agreement and agreements on logistic support with NATO as Belgrade making steps toward accession to NATO is inaccurate and biased, Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic told Sputnik. Djordjevic stressed that by strengthening cooperation with the alliance, Belgrade was not jeopardizing its principle of neutrality. "All the agreements concluded with NATO have a goal of creating best conditions for the realization of cooperation, on which we agreed in 2007. Interpretations like those that by ratifying Status of forces agreement (SOFA) and agreements on logistic support, Serbia made a step into NATO are tendentious and wrong," Djordjevic said. NATO countries continuously stress the importance of enhancing relations with Russia, Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic told Sputnik. "The most high-profile representatives of NATO states have been using any opportunity to strengthen the solidarity within the alliance lately, but at the same time they stress the significance of closer ties with Russia," Djordjevic said. The minister added that the Warsaw summit rhetoric demonstrated that despite deterioration in the NATO-Russia relations, the alliance was seeking normalization and restart. "My personal impression is that the summit was not held 'under the sign of confrontation," he stressed. The Summit in Poland's capital was held last week and focused on Russia. On Wednesday, Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko said measures adopted by alliance's member countries at the summit were of confrontational nature. Serbia will examine the possibility of holding joint military exercise with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in near future, Serbian Defense Minister Zoran Djordjevic told Sputnik. The CSTO is a military alliance of former Soviet states, which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. Serbia is now an official EU member candidate and a participant of NATO's Partnership for Peace programme. On top of that, Serbia signed the highest-tier cooperation possible between NATO and a country not willing to join the alliance, called Individual Partnership Action Plan. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "serbia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/serbia. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
