Vučić at the ceremony marking "Cobras Day": "The Serbian soldier is the most resilient soldier in the world"

“Thank you very much for that, and that is one of the reasons why you enjoy such respect both from the state leadership and why we invested so much money in this facility. Now, I wouldn’t be a president and I wouldn’t be a grumbler if I didn’t add something more. In competitions you take part in, you usually achieve very good results, as do other units of ours and other brave men.”

Expectations from the unit

“In the coming years, I expect you to compete side by side with the best units in the world, which are the Kazakh and Chinese units. That is very difficult; they have automated everything and brought it to perfection. Almost impossible, but that is what I expect from you. Now you have all the conditions and there are no excuses—we ran two extra laps because we missed twice by accident, something didn’t work properly. For them, everything always works properly. They are always first and second—Kazakhstan and China. I want you to compete with them, to keep pace with them, to be the best in the world.

Now you have all the conditions; if anything else is needed, we are ready to help. The Serbian soldier is the most resilient soldier in the world—that was said by French Marshal Franchet d’Espèrey. Today, your unit is one of the pillars of the defense system, the overall fight against terrorism, and the security system of the Republic of Serbia. And on April 14, 1978, when the unit was formed as an anti-terrorist department, it had one officer and 12 non-commissioned officers.”

“We are the only truly militarily neutral country”

“We are stronger, better, and more powerful than others in the region because we are the only truly militarily neutral country. Everyone else either belongs to or wants to belong to a military alliance. Only we want to protect our own sky and our own land. Only we want to decide our own destiny. And therefore, I do not see this money spent as a cost, but as an investment in the country’s security, safety, and stability.

Our dear Patriarch Pavle often said: ‘One does not live for the homeland only in war, but also works for it in peace.’ And that is why your work in these peacetime conditions is a guarantee of your readiness for all challenges. I wish you much success, I wish you to be proud of your workplace, much different from where I visited you last time. I wish you to be on your own ground, to be brave as you have been so far, and to pass that courage, boldness, and determination on to future generations,” Vučić said.

Economic crisis

“The global economic crisis will be impossible to avoid; I fear it will be one of the most severe in the world, perhaps the worst since 1929–1933, maybe even the worst in history,” Vučić said.

“Everything is becoming harder to stop, and consequences are already present. We are all living on buffers and reserves we built earlier, not on today’s reality. How long we will be able to do that, we will try to hold out a day, two, three, five, seven, or ten days longer than others, but everything is becoming more difficult, more complicated, and more problematic.

When you have such economic crises, you also have major political conflicts. Those conflicts lead to situations where no one respects anyone anymore, and they lead to armed conflicts that break out with incredible and irresponsible ease in various parts of the world. Our obligation—as a militarily neutral country, the only one in the region—is to protect peace, surrounded by NATO countries or those aspiring to join NATO.”

On military service from March 1 next year

“We are strengthening special units, recruitment is very good. We have never had such good recruitment for special units in history. We are also trying in every way to ensure peace and guarantee it.

As for military service—do you think we are closer to December or March? I think it is realistic that all obligations will be completed, that recruitment lists and everything else will start in September or October, and that from March 1 we can begin military service.

When you say military service, it is not what it used to be when we served for a year—this is now 75 days. It is almost child’s play compared to 365 days, but young men will acquire new habits, more responsibility, seriousness, understanding of the state, and life skills that will help them in the future. I think that is a very good thing, and the state will be much stronger.

We will especially encourage the construction of military centers and renovation of barracks in border areas, from Sombor to Pirot, from Priboj to Zaječar… Zaječar will receive a defense industry facility very soon. Every job created in Zaječar is a chance for people to return, to the east of Serbia. We will continue to work on this.”

The ceremony is being held at the “Vasa Čarapić” barracks, and Vučić will also visit the new accommodation and training facility for unit members.

Vučić was welcomed by Defense Minister Bratislav Gašić, Chief of General Staff General Milan Mojsilović, and unit commander Darko Djošić.

Also present are ministers Siniša Mali and Zlatibor Lončar, SNS president Miloš Vučević, police director Dragan Vasiljević, BIA director Vladimir Orlić, as well as a large number of Serbian Armed Forces members, former unit members, and veterans.