Defense minister: No pressure over NATO

The U.S. vice president has said that Serbia could join NATO swiftly, but that no one will pressure the country to do so, Dragan Šutanovac told B92.

Izvor: B92

Thursday, 21.05.2009.

12:23

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The U.S. vice president has said that Serbia could join NATO swiftly, but that no one will pressure the country to do so, Dragan Sutanovac told B92. The defense minister, who met with Joseph Biden as he visited Belgrade on Wednesday, also said that Biden commended progress made in the Serbian Army reform. Defense minister: No pressure over NATO "Mr. Biden told me that we already have standards that are acceptable to them, that we could join NATO very soon, if our interest is there in the end, but that he understands completely the situation we find ourselves in and that no one will pressure us on that road." "Whether we want to or not, that decision rests with us. He told me that it would be very important to them for Serbia to enter that circle of countries," said Sutanovac. "On the other hand, we discussed our Partnership for Peace activities and that is now within the framework that we can speak in, and I think that at this point, it is a completely sufficient framework, bearing in mind that there are countries that are not NATO members that have partnership relations with America and NATO," continued the defense minister. "We also spoke about the reforms we are conducting, about the professionalization of our military, about the cooperation with the U.S. army and Ohio [National] Guard. It was intersting that he [Biden] knew the exact number of our men who were trained in America in the past years, even the number of various activities we have had, and even said that he had the pleasure of hearing that a Serbian student was among the top ten, when he addressed the air force academy in Colorado Springs," said Sutanovac. Biden, Sutanovac in Belgrade on Wednesday (Beta)

Defense minister: No pressure over NATO

"Mr. Biden told me that we already have standards that are acceptable to them, that we could join NATO very soon, if our interest is there in the end, but that he understands completely the situation we find ourselves in and that no one will pressure us on that road."

"Whether we want to or not, that decision rests with us. He told me that it would be very important to them for Serbia to enter that circle of countries," said Šutanovac.

"On the other hand, we discussed our Partnership for Peace activities and that is now within the framework that we can speak in, and I think that at this point, it is a completely sufficient framework, bearing in mind that there are countries that are not NATO members that have partnership relations with America and NATO," continued the defense minister.

"We also spoke about the reforms we are conducting, about the professionalization of our military, about the cooperation with the U.S. army and Ohio [National] Guard. It was intersting that he [Biden] knew the exact number of our men who were trained in America in the past years, even the number of various activities we have had, and even said that he had the pleasure of hearing that a Serbian student was among the top ten, when he addressed the air force academy in Colorado Springs," said Šutanovac.

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