Members of the initiative are Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, the United States, Slovenia, Turkey, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia have observer status. This year SEDM is presided by Croatia.
The event was opened by Croatian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Slavko Baric and a state secretary in the Croatian Defence Ministry, Mate Raboteg.
Raboteg said that Croatia, a country joining Euro-Atlantic associations, was also taking part in other regional initiatives. The aim of such initiatives is to strengthen trust in southeast Europe and exchange experience, notably in armed forces reforms, he said.