Serbia to open regional military training centre

Serbia to open regional military training centre

Belgrade will open a regional training centre next year to strengthen its participation in multi-national operations.

Belgrade is opening a regional military training centre to strengthen the region's presence in international peacekeeping missions. The centre will be established at the South military base, about 300 kilometres south of Belgrade, and will open next year.

"The ministry of defence and the Serbian Army are committed to developing and strengthening regional co-operation and exchanging experiences with members of the armed forces of other countries. Therefore, our objective is to open the South centre to train members of the armed forces in the region and beyond," Serbian Minister of Defence Bratislav Gasic told SETimes.

The project, supported by the United States, will be an unprecedented training centre in the region.

"Unlike similar training centres for multi-national operations, like Krivolak in Macedonia, which is primarily designed for field training, and Butmir in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where training is carried out predominantly through lectures, the centre at the South base will integrate the application what was learned in the field," Gasic said.

In July, South hosted the Platinum Wolf 14 exercise, which involved soldiers from Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Azerbaijan and members of the Ohio National Guard. Another exercise, Platinum Wolf 15, will take place at the base in November.

The South military base opened in November 2009, and can accommodate about 1,000 people.

Professor Zoran Dragišić, a member of the Belgrade Faculty of Security, said that the base's transformation into a regional training centre is...