Mantelli: Serbia's EU integration should be accelerated

BELGRADE - Italy believes it is time to speed up Serbia's EU integration, Chief of the General Staff of the Italian Armed Forces Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli said on Tuesday.

Cooperation between the two countries' armed forces will facilitate Serbia's EU integration, Mantelli told a joint news conference with Serbia's Chief of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic.

Italy is currently the Council of Europe's presiding country and will use the next 6 months to support Serbia's EU integration, Mantelli stresssed.

It is time to speed up Serbia's integration, because history waits for no one, while problems keep piling up, he said after a meeting with Dikovic.

Italy sees Serbia as a factor of stability, not just in the Balkans, but also in Ukraine and in the Islamic world, in the context of crises that surround Europe and cause concern there, he underscored.

Italian soldiers are among KFOR troops in Kosovo in order to facilitate civil and social development, and they have Serbia's support in those efforts, he remarked.

According to Mantelli, cooperation in training air force ground troops and members of the river flotilla are areas where cooperation will continue in the future.

Dikovic said he was pleased with the level of cooperation so far, adding that he and Mantelli would discuss improvements in a number of areas during the Italian Admiral's visit.

According to Dikovic, those areas include military and military economic cooperation and joint participation in EU and UN missions.

The Serbian Armed Forces plan to send a unit to the UN peace mission in Lebanon as part of the Italian contingent there, which numbers over 1,500 troops, Dikovic noted.

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