Serbia became a part of the EU BATTLE GROUP: What is HELBROC

Serbia has become part of the HELBROC battle group consisting of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, and Ukraine. A note on Serbia's accession to the technical agreement on the establishment of HELBROC was signed in Athens by the Chief of the National Defense Department of Greece, Evangelos Apostolakis, during the visit of Serbian Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin, announced by the Ministry of Defense of Serbia.

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- It is a great pleasure for me to say that with the signing of the Greek side today we have become part of the EU HELBROC battle group, which consists of Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, and Ukraine. As you see, the Army of Serbia is highly appreciated and all these countries accepted the participation of our army without any conditioning. The participation of our army will be at the level of a military police, staff officers, up to five staff officers, and of course, representatives in the civil-military cooperation office and our participation will be operational by 2020 - Vulin said.

Foto: Tanjug/MINISTARSTVO ODBRANE, DARIMIR BANDA

The Greek Defense Minister has underlined readiness to continue supporting and sharing experiences in the European integration process, especially in the engagement of the Republic of Serbia in the EU's HELBROC battle group, where Greece is the leading nation.

Vulin emphasized that this is a great confirmation of the operational capabilities of our army and a great acknowledgment to the policy of our state "which is able to preserve the neutrality of the military and to take care that our military neutrality does not in any way prevents neither our politics nor our army it fights against the greatest evil of the modern world, to fight terrorism, to participate in all regional initiatives such as HELBROC, to participate everywhere where we can proudly say that we are on the right side of the world.

- This is an important day for us, and this is yet another opportunity for us to show that we are valued both as a people and as a state, both as a policy and as an army. We are among friends. Not by chance, only one country recognized Kosovo, while others did not. And this was carefully taken into account when choosing where we will appear and in which group we will participate - said Vulin.

HELBROC is an EU battle group led by Greece. Originally named HELBROC as an acronym for HELlas, Bulgaria, ROmania, Cyprus and consists of military units from the before mentioned countries. Ukraine joined the Balkan combat group.

It is a military fighting group for quick responses, which was established with the cooperation of NATO and the European Union.

This Balkan Group is part of the European Fighting Group, which is part of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), formerly known as the European Security and Defense Policy. This institution was formerly within NATO but was later placed under the jurisdiction of the EU.

(Telegraf.co.uk)