Gasic meets with Azerbaijan's defence minister in Baku

BELGRADE - Serbian Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic met with Azerbaijani Defence Minister Col Gen Zakir Hasanov in Baku on Friday to discuss defence cooperation and concrete steps towards its advancement, as well as the current political and security situation.

Gasic said he was pleased to be on an official visit to a brotherly and friendly country.

He noted that the relationship between the presidents of Serbia and Azerbaijan, Aleksandar Vucic and Ilham Aliyev, reflected the traditional friendship between the two countries and represented a solid foundation for further development of their bilateral relations.

Serbia is very grateful to Azerbaijan for its principled and unreserved support for the territorial integrity of Serbia in numerous international organisations when it comes to Serbia's southern Kosovo-Metohija province, Gasic said.

He said Serbia would never recognise the unilaterally declared independence of the so-called Kosovo and noted that, with full respect of UNSCR 1244 and the Military Technical Agreement, Belgrade was always committed to resolve all issues through political dialogue with Pristina.

He also noted that Serbia had a long-term commitment to remain a militarily neutral country.

Speaking about defence cooperation with Azerbaijan, Gasic said development and advancement of cooperation in military training, military economic cooperation and cooperation in military technology was one of the strategic objectives.

Gasic and Hasanov agreed there was evident qualitative and quantitative progress in bilateral military cooperation and noted that the two defence ministries and the two armed forces would carry out numerous activities in the fields of military education, military medicine, strategic planning and military-to-military cooperation.

Hasanov said overall Serbia-Azerbaijan relations were good and that bilateral cooperation, including defence cooperation, was constantly being advanced.

He said defence cooperation was good and that notable progress had been made in military economic cooperation and cooperation in military technology.