BELGRADE BELGRADE, Nov 26 (Hina) - The Yugoslav government must carry out a reform of the Armed Forces and it is realistic to expect that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will become a member of NATO's Partnership for Peace
programme in the next several years, perhaps even next year, Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said in Belgrade on Tuesday, opening a conference called "Reform of the Armed Forces - Experiences and Challenges".
BELGRADE, Nov 26 (Hina) - The Yugoslav government must carry out a
reform of the Armed Forces and it is realistic to expect that the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will become a member of NATO's
Partnership for Peace programme in the next several years, perhaps
even next year, Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said in Belgrade
on Tuesday, opening a conference called "Reform of the Armed Forces
- Experiences and Challenges". #L#
The incumbent government has inherited a very well trained army,
but also an apparatus which exceeds the state's and financial
possibilities and needs, Svilanovic said.
He stressed the Yugoslav Army currently numbered about 75,000,
which in the next year should be reduced to 60,000 or 65,000, and in
the next decade to between 40,000 and 45,000.
The military industry sector will also suffer changes, Svilanovic
said.
According to Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Branko Krga, the reform's
ultimate goal is the full professionalisation of the army, with
emphasis placed on anti-terrorist training and the participation
of Yugoslav soldiers in peace missions.
The chief of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe Mission to Yugoslavia, Mark Davison, and British Ambassador
to Belgrade Charles Crawford said they expected that FRY would
continue with the reform of the armed forces so that it might join
Euro-Atlantic associations as soon as possible.
Crawford stressed the need for Yugoslavia to cooperate with the
U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and to establish facts in the
military cooperation with Iraq affair.
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