The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Serbia to Get Professional Army By 2011
Belgrade | 04 December 2009 | Bojana Barlovac
Serbia's Army Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Miloje Miletic said on Thursday that the army will become fully professional by the first half of 2011 at the latest.
Speaking at a conference 'Necessary Skills for Serbian Army Officers, 2010-2020', Miletic said that Serbian officers will be educated according to NATO standards.
"The very fact that our officers have been educated in various institutions in the countries that are members of the Partnership for Peace program and NATO allows us to educate our officers according to those standards," Tanjug news agency quoted Miletic as saying.
Serbia became a Partnership for Peace, PfP, member in December 2006, signing a cooperation agreement with NATO in which democratic, institutional and defence reforms were the key focus.
Prior to becoming a formal member, Serbia engaged in limited security and defence reform cooperation with NATO, while military officers and civilians were allowed to participate in PfP courses.
A day after NATO accepted Albania and Croatia into the Alliance in April last year, Serbia unveiled drafts of national security and defence strategies, in which it maintains its military neutrality.
When asked how the army education is related to the country's military neutrality, Miletic said that the officers' education has nothing to do with it.
"We (the military and the Defense Ministry) respect the decisions of the Serbian parliament, like all other government institutions, and that (military neutrality) does not prevent us from cooperating with other militaries in the world," the agency quoted Miletic as saying.
