Minister Vulin: Training for Active Duty and Reserve Components is Priority
Friday, 17.8.2018 | News
Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, accompanied by SAF Chief of General Staff General Ljubiša Diković, has attended today training activity of June 2018 generation of soldiers on voluntary military service, in Požarevac.
As Minister Vulin pointed out, the Serbian Armed Forces is getting armed and equipping, acquiring the most modern assets and it can undoubtedly measure against any army in our neighbourhood.
- But what is necessary, besides assets, is certainly training. It is necessary that our active duty component is extremely well-trained, but of course, we are working more and more on activation of our reserve component, on training of our reservists and practicing everything they knew, but also acquiring new skills. When you are modernising the armed forces, you must train both the active duty component and the reserve. This year, we envisaged to have reserve call-ups in a significantly higher percentage and I can say with pleasure that they are extremely responsive, the minister of defence emphasized.
According to him, Požarevac is in the first place in Serbia when the response of the reserve component is concerned, which is one of the reasons why he is there today.
- More than 80 percent of those who we call up immediately report to their units and fulfil their duty. Defence of the country is not only a statutory duty, but it is also moral, and it has never been abolished by any act, either of the Assembly or the Government. Each of us has the obligation to defend our country, in accordance with our capabilities and our assignments. The Serbian Armed Forces is progressing, intensively arming itself, but the Serbian Armed Forces is working now more than ever on its training and we have to be able to compare with any army in the world, Minister Vulin said.
He added that there have been active efforts invested in improving the position of members of the Serbian Armed Forces.
- Salaries and allowances have increased, we expect to start also with the housing construction cycle for members of the security structures, we take care and we also have the understanding of local governments to ensure that our children in kindergartens have priority and that spouses have priority to get employed when they come to a new environment. Entire Serbia takes care of its own army and I am very proud of it, minister of defence concluded.
General Diković stressed that it is important that our soldier be top-trained and added that this can be achieved only by persistent practice, great will and motivation of people.
- Today we have seen a well-organized training and how our people are motivated, which is an incentive for all of us to invest more in training. I am extremely pleased with what I have seen today, and in particular I am delighted by the motivation of soldiers and instructors, and it gives hope and belief that our army can and must be even better, more capable and manned and it has potential for this, General Diković said, adding that Army Training Centre grows into a very high quality centre in this region.
Lieutenant General Đokica Petrović, Commander of the Training Command, said that what was demonstrated today is “the beauty of training, but also the beauty of the motivation of our soldiers”.
- They showed the will and the heart to adopt the knowledge and skills necessary for further military service, General Petrović said.
Today, in the Požarevac barracks, training in companies for training of infantry specialties, armoured units, engineering branch and in a company for training of scouts and military policemen and an artillery battery has been demonstrated.
