Minister: Bosnia will continue participation in NATO mission in Afghanistan

Ministarstvo odbrane BiH

Bosnia and Herzegovina is committed and devoted to the joint efforts and cooperation with partners towards the international peace and stability, Defence minister Sifet Podzic said during the NATO ministerial meeting held Thursday within the Resolute Support Mission, adding that Bosnia's Armed Forces will continue their participation in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.

The meeting was held to inform the ministers about current political and military developments in Afghanistan and about the peace process in that country.

Minister Podzic said that Bosnia already expressed the readiness to stay the part of the mission when it sent the ‘Reform Programme’, the document that Bosnian authorities recently delivered to the NATO in Brussels. He said he was glad that Bosnian authorities and NATO will work together on the implementation of this document and strengthening their relations.

The delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina held a series of meetings with foreign officials during the visit to Brussels, including the meeting at the premises of the US Mission to NATO, where they met with Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs in the office of the Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, and her associates.

The meeting discussed the participation of Bosnia's Armed Forces in the international training and operations, the significance of the cooperation within the Adriatic-Ionian Charter, the US support to Bosnia's defence capacities and the defence reform.

Cooper mentioned the procurement of a helicopter for Bosnia's Armed Forces as a positive example of cooperation, stressing that the US will continue providing support to Bosnia and building its defence capacities.

Podzic thanked for the support, expressing pleasure that the very first meeting he had after assuming office was at the NATO HQ and with a US senior official.