Peace and stability are of the most significant interest in the Balkans, and only those who have experienced a war know how crucial it is to fight for peace, Serbia’s Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin said on Wednesday.

Vulin hosted on Wednesday the opening of the Balkan armies chief-of-staffs’ 12th conference, telling the gathering that “whenever the Balkan peoples took care of themselves there was peace in the region.”

As a special envoy of Serbia’s President and Commander-in-Chief Aleksandar Vucic, Vulin said that “we who live here now and will live in the future, have to take care about every country as our own.”

“We share a tiny space,” he said. “And we cannot watch each other being in trouble, without providing help.” He added that “politicians create problems, not soldiers.”

Vulin said “only peace will safeguard what we have in those territories that we consider as ours.”

Serbia’s Army Chief-of-Staf, General Ljubisa Dikovic, told reporters that the military cooperation in the region was the only way to resolve any security issue that might burden the Balkan countries.

Though invited, representatives of the Croatian Army did not come to Belgrade, while the Slovenian and the NATO Military Committee delegations took part as observers.