Acting Assistant Minister for security policy, Ambassador Branimir Filipovic participated together with Major General Bojan Zrnic, Head of Defence Technology Department of the Ministry of Defence, and representatives from the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to the EU and the Mission of the Republic of Serbia to NATO, in the Annual Conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA), which took place in Brussels on 23 November 2017.
Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who is ex officio also Head of the EDA, opened the event, Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid President of Estonia was the honorary speaker, while the participants were also addressed by Mr. Julian King, European Commissioner for the Security Union.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Security in the digital age: the added value of European cooperation”, with two panels discussing cyber security and cyber defence in the context of strategic threats in the cyberspace and finding European solutions to global problems.
During the conference, Ambassador Filipovic and General Zrnic had talks with Ambassador Jorge Domecq, EDA Chief Executive, who conveyed his gratitude for Serbia’s delegation participating at such a high level. In the meeting, they also exchanged views on activities towards the strengthening of cooperation between Serbia and the European Defence Agency in the period to come.
Serbia has cooperated with the EDA since 2013 and the signing of an Administrative Arrangement between the EDA and the Ministry of Defence which enabled Serbia’s participation in various EDA programmes and has been important for the promotion of interoperability, position of defence industry in Serbia, and also of national institutes’ research potential, all of the above being contributing factors in the modernization of technology used by Serbia’s armed forces.
As part of his visit to Brussels, NATO Deputy Secretary General Ms. Rose Gottemoeller received Ambassador Filipovic at NATO Headquarters, while the Acting Assistant Minister also met with NATO Assistant Secretary General Tacan Ildem. In these meetings, views were exchanged on the dynamic of the implementation of concrete arrangements concerning the development of partner cooperation, stemming from the recent successful visit by President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic to the NATO Headquarters, the talks he had with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and his participation in a North Atlantic Council meeting.