NATO "respects Serbia's interest to remain neutral"

Serbia has an interest to remain militarily neutral and we respect that, Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, has told B92.

Izvor: B92

Thursday, 03.03.2016.

09:30

NATO

NATO "respects Serbia's interest to remain neutral"

"I believe that relations between Serbia and NATO have constantly evolved over the past decade. We are returning mutual trust and we have clearly established that cooperation and partnership benefits both sides," he said.

As he said, when there is mutual interest and good will there can be good cooperation.

"We respect Serbia as a sovereign country. Serbia has an interest to remain militarily neutral and we respect that and we have no intention of pushing Serbia to any side," said the chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

However, the agreement on freedom of movement of NATO members ratified recently by the assembly has been seen by some as a step towards membership.

"None of these agreements on freedom of movement or the partnership initiative create any preconditions for Serbia's membership in NATO. That is a decision of Serbia and no one will change it. To have a freedom of movement agreement is a standard that NATO has with every partner country with whom we have the Trust Fund and joint activities. The agreement is needed so that we can implement the Trust Fund, and Jordan and Austria have similar agreements. There is nothing that should cause fear and concern among the Serbian population," said Pavel.

NATO understands the traditionally good relations between Serbia and Russia, he remarked, adding that his meeting with Serbian Army Chief of General Staff Ljubisa Dikovic touched on "all global issues."

Pavel said that the aim of his visit, as well as of those of other NATO officials, is to strengthen cooperation and better understand the situation on the ground, "to talk about common interests."

"I think we have a lot of common challenges - terrorism, extremism coming from the South, migrations, human and weapons trafficking... These are all topics that need to be understood together so that we can approach them in the right way," said the Czech general.

Asked whether the announced increase of NATO' presence in the east of the alliance will raise tensions with Moscow, Pavel said that the units to be deployed there will not be larger than battalions - "and that can pose no threat to anyone."

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