SEESAC Chairs RASR Steering Committee Meeting

The Steering Committee of The Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction (RASR) met on 14 January 2013 in Belgrade, Serbia. Chaired by the SEESAC’s Team Leader Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski, the meeting was attended by RASR Steering Committee members Goran Gacnik and Blaz Mihelic of the International Trust Fund (ITF), David Towndrow of the NATO Support Agency (NSPA), Eric Berman from the Small Arms Survey (SAS), Brig. Gen, Zdravko Jakop and Lt. Col. Zoltan Volgyi of RACVIAC – Centre for Security Cooperation  and John P. Hesford representing the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.

The Steering Committee discussed the agenda of the forthcoming RASR workshop, which is set to take place in Bled, Slovenia in April of 2013. The Committee members further discussed about the possibility of expansion of the RASR membership, future evaluation of RASR Initiative and RASR website and its outreach policies.

SEESAC Team Leader, Dr. Ivan Zverzhanovski, handed over Steering Committee Chair for 2013 to Mr. Goran Gacnik of the International Trust Fund (ITF).

About RASR
The Regional Approach to Stockpile Reduction (RASR) is a long-term, coordinated, regional approach to address the threats posed by excess, unstable, loosely secured or otherwise at-risk stockpiles of conventional weapons and munitions in South East Europe.

RASR encourages affected governments to develop a pro-active, coordinated, regional approach to secure and destroy SALWs, by building local capacity, sharing best practices and lessons learned, and pooling resources in order to maximize their efficiency. The ultimate aim of the RASR initiative is to prevent disastrous explosions or destabilizing diversions of conventional weapons and munitions.
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