Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias meets President and Defence Minister During Official Visit to Serbia

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Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias meets President and Defence Minister During Official Visit to Serbia

November 5, 2024

On Tuesday 5 November, Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias, made an official visit to Serbia.

At the opening of his visit to Belgrade, the Minister of National Defence was received by the President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić. During the meeting, which was held in a cordial spirit, they discussed the strong bonds of friendship between Greece and Serbia, and the strengthening of the bipartisan defensive partnership.

Subsequently, Mr. Dendias met the Minister of Defence of Serbia, Bratislav Gašić. During the discussions, the two Defence Ministers discussed further strengthening the strategic defensive partnership in the domains of training Armed Forces' cadres, joint exercises, connectivity of the innovation systems and scientific cooperation between medical services, among others. During the meeting, they also exchanged opinions on regional and international security matters, with Mr. Dendias inviting his Serb counterpart to visit Athens shortly.

During the joint statements of the two Ministers following their meeting, Mr. Dendias stated:

"Dear Minister

First, allow me to extend to you and to the Serbian people my deepest condolences for the tragic accident in Novi Sad.

I am so grateful for your warm hospitality, for your kind invitation to come to Serbia, to Belgrade.

I also have to start by thanking you, for providing help during the wildfires Greece faced in August, and your recent support with the wildfires in Kavala, on Mountain Pangaio. We appreciate it deeply. Thank you very much.

Before our meeting, I had the honour to meet President Vučić. It is always a great pleasure and honour to meet the President of Serbia.

In my previous position as Minister of Foreign Affairs, I visited Serbia five times.

This is my first time as Defense Minister. Needless to say, it is known that I am from Corfu, an island connected to Serbian history, which I know has a special place in the heart of every Serb.

Dear Bratislav, I am aware of your personal attachment to my home island. I would like to thank you for that.

Today we had the opportunity to discuss various issues concerning the security of the entire region, as well as our bilateral defense relations.

Relations, which have acquired a strategic level since the 2019 agreement. We discussed how we are going to enhance our relations, how we could profit from each other's experience and how we could organize more joint exercises in the future.

We would also like to bring our defense ecosystems into contact. I am going to visit the Military Technical institute of Serbia immediately afterwards. I will also brief the Minister concerning the new Research Centre we have founded in Greece, ELKAK.

It is a very useful visit since it is very important to learn from the experience of your allies in life.

We also had the opportunity to discuss the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue.

Concerning this issue, I would like to repeat what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis just said a few weeks ago; that our position on Kosovo remains steadfast.

Further progress in the talks is the only way to ensure stability and prosperity in our region.

Greece, of course, supports the KFOR mission. We participate in KFOR and we are ready to do anything needed in order to support stability in the region.

In addition, I would like to give a reminder concerning Greece's position on the Western Balkans. Greece advocates for long-lasting peace and security through good neighborly relations, respect for the rules-based international order and the fundamental principles of international law by all.

We believe that Western Balkan countries should become members of the European Union. In addition, we certainly welcome Serbia's strategic choice to prioritize the European Union path.

I would like to congratulate Serbia on the progress made and I would like the Serbian people to know they have a true friend in Brussels, who is ready to help them as much as possible in this process.

Furthermore, I would very much like to thank the Minister for his hospitality and the conversation we will have during lunch.

We have much more to yet achieve together. Many goals to achieve as true friends".

In the framework of the Greece - Serbia discussions on the possibilities of the defensive ecosystems cooperation, Mr. Dendias visited the Military Technical Institute of Serbia (VTI), where the country's Deputy Minister of Defence, Dr. Nenad Miloradovic, guided him.

The visit to Belgrade concluded with a meal given in honour of the Greek Minister of National Defence by his Serb counterpart, in his home, in Belgrade.