Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said that Serbia wants to participate in peacekeeping operations and missions under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and European Union (EU) whenever there is capacity and opportunity.

At a celebration marking the Peacekeeping Operations Center Day and the 20th anniversary of the Serbian Armed Forces’ participation in multinational operations, Vucevic said that, “unfortunately, the importance of peacekeeping missions has also been seen in Serbia.”

„Even today, we look, with anxiety, at all that is happening in our southern province or in the region, believing that those who are engaged there on behalf of the international community are aware of their responsibility and have sufficient capacity to protect and achieve the goal for which they are there,“ the Defense Ministry quoted Vucevic as saying.

The Minister said he was certain that the General Staff, with General Milan Mojsilovic at helm, will do everything that is up to the Serbian Armed Forces to send soldiers to such peacekeeping missions and that they “return well and alive and help the people living in whose areas.”

Chief of the Peacekeeping Operations Centre, Colonel Mirjana Milenkovic said that 285 Serbian Armed Forces members are currently deployed in UN and EU peacekeeping missions and that they “worthily represent the military profession and the Serbian medical profession.“

Milenkovic added that 5,500 Serbian Armed Forces members have so participated in 10 peacekeeping missions under the auspices of the UN, and in six EU-led missions.