RACVIAC Planning and Liaison Officer LTC Arta DRIZA participated in the DCHODs Deputy Chief of Defence/General Staff Meeting held under the chairmanship of Bulgaria and hosted by Slovenia on 13-14 June 2022.
The Deputy Chiefs of Defence/General Staff and representatives of 11 SEDM member and observer countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Türkiye), the Commander of the SEEBRIG Multinational Brigade as well as the representatives of International organisations like RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation and UNDP SEESAC Policy Expert, active in defence cooperation in the region, took part in the Meeting.
The purpose of this Meeting was to foster political-military cooperation in South East Europe (SEE), regional and international security as well as the transformation processes in view of EU and NATO membership obligations, in order to further strengthen peace, stability, trust, prosperity and security in the region.
The Chair of SEDM Secretariat H.E. Mr. Yordan Bozhilov, Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Defence, presented the activities carried out during the Bulgarian Chairmanship. The Slovenian DCHOD, Brigadier General Roman Urbanic, in his Keynote speech, among others, praised RACVIAC for the excellent work done in the region on fostering dialogue and cooperation on security matters.
The participants adopted a Joint Statement reiterating that regional military cooperation is of great importance for security and stability in the region, whereas national capacities should be coordinated and synergized in order to respond to common security threats. The SEDM Statement, condemning the Russian aggression against Ukraine, was fully supported by The Deputy Chiefs of Defence considering the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a flagrant violation of international law.
The Deputy Chiefs of Defence underlined that in a rapidly changing security environment, where new challenges arise – from current economic crisis to natural disaster or new sources of threats – countries of the region need to work on furthering the concept of cooperative security.
The Defence ministerial’s Joint Statement reflected the importance of enhancing regional cooperation and supporting stability, democracy and development in South East Europe.
Deputy Chiefs of Defence encouraged further cooperation between the Centre for Security Cooperation (RACVIAC), the Southeast Europe Defense Ministerial (SEEDM) and the UNDP in the area of security cooperation.
DCHODs in their Joint Statement stated: “We appreciate RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation as a unique International organization dealing with security issues, playing a leading role in the areas of confidence and security building measures – a project owned by the region and working for the region – which has made an outstanding contribution to enhancing permanent and sincere security cooperation among the SEE countries and to reaching long-lasting peace and prosperity.”
At the end the participants expressed their appreciation to the Host Nation and SEDM Secretariat for their efforts in successfully preparing and conducting the annual DCHODs Meeting.
