SEESAC Takes Part at the Comprehensive Regional Ministerial

On 01-03 October 2013, SEESAC took part in the Comprehensive Regional Ministerial (CRM), held at the Brdo Congress Centre near Kranj in Slovenia.

The CRM is an innovative project aimed at rationalizing costs and saving valuable time. It consists of three separate events, namely the Western Balkans Defence Policy Directors (WBDPD) Meeting, the U. S. – Adriatic Charter (A-5) Defence Ministerial and the South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial (SEDM).

At the opening sessions, participants were addressed by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Lamberto Zannier, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Slovenia Roman Jakič, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia Bogdan Benko, the Chair of the Adriatic Charter and the Minister of Defence of Montenegro Milica Pejanović-Đurišić, the Chairperson of SEDM Coordination and Political-Military Steering Committees and the State Secretary of the Romanian Ministry of Defence Sebastian Huluban.

The first CRM was attended by 11 defense ministers, 3 deputy ministers, 28 delegations and a total of 150 representatives of different countries and international organizations.

SEESAC was invited to the CRM as a regular attendee of the South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial (SEDM). SEDM is an initiative launched in 1996 for the purpose of boosting the cooperation of the South-Eastern Europe countries. The aim of the SEDM meeting is to analyze existing mechanisms of the defense regional cooperation and to synchronize regional initiatives in the South East Europe in order to increase efficiency and save resources.