http://www.emportal.co.yu/en/news/serbia/78527.html Tanjug News Agency February 10, 2009 Serbian Police and Armed forces to join EU, NATO peacekeeping missions -Serbia probably will not seek full membership in NATO, but it intends to strengthen its partnership with this Alliance through more intensive participation in international operations, Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac said.... -There is also the possibility that Serbia could provide NATO members and partners with access to the Military Medical Academy of Belgrade, as well as to the Center for Training in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence in Krusevac, which has already organized courses for the Organization for Banning Chemical Arms.... The Serbian Police Force is interested in taking part in EU peacekeeping police missions all over the world while Serbian Army intends to strengthen its partnership with NATO through more intensive participation in international operations. Serbian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement for Tanjug on Sunday evening that he had conveyed to European Union (EU) officials in Brussels that the Serbian Police Force is interested in taking part in EU peacekeeping police missions all over the world. Speaking after talks with Director-General Robert Cooper of the EU Council General Secretariat about the possibilities for the participation of the Serbian Police in peacekeeping police missions of the EU, Dacic underscored that this question is of vast importance for the positioning and the strengthening of the position of the Serbian Police. "Naturally, I also conveyed that the Serbian Police are interested in participating in these missions, and I let it be known that our Police Force is already taking part in peace missions of police nature in Haiti and Liberia," Dacic told Tanjug. Serbia probably will not seek full membership in NATO, but it intends to strengthen its partnership with this Alliance through more intensive participation in international operations, Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac said for the latest number of the magazine Jane's Defence Weekly. It is the objective of Belgrade to do what some European countries have already done - such as Sweden or Austria - to place membership in the European Union above further integration with NATO, Sutanovac said. There are a series of areas in which cooperation between NATO and Serbia can be strengthened, the Serbian minister said, and this especially pertains to peacekeeping missions of the United Nations, the weekly said in its Internet edition. That would be very important for Serbia's future, the minister said. Any attempt at increasing the number of Serbian members in peacekeeping operations abroad could encounter public opposition in Serbia, Sutanovac admitted. There is also the possibility that Serbia could provide NATO members and partners with access to the Military Medical Academy of Belgrade, as well as to the Center for Training in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence in Krusevac, which has already organized courses for the Organization for Banning Chemical Arms, he said. __,_._,___
