SEESAC present its activities at the 35th SEDM-CC meeting in Cappadocia, Turkey
SEESAC participated in the 35th South East Europe Defence Ministerial Coordination Committee (SEDM-CC) Meeting held in Nevsehir, Turkey on 7- 8, September 2016. Participants discussed future SEDM developments, made a SEDM Strategic Review and provided an update on SEDM projects.
SEESAC presented its accomplishments, current and upcoming activities in South East Europe (SEE) in arms control and gender equality in the military. Within its core mandate, SEESAC is facilitating three regional processes, South East Europe Firearms Expert Network (SEEFEN), Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Commissions and Regional Information Exchange Process (RIEP) that support both policy making bodies and practitioners in addressing the threat posed by the widespread possession and use of weapons in the region. SEESAC also supported efforts in the Western Balkans region to integrate the gender perspective into defense policies through the innovative regional project Women in the Military, implemented in close cooperation with the Ministries of Defense in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The SEDM-CC meeting convened delegations from 13 Ministries of Defence of SEDM member countries (Tirana, Sarajevo, Sofia, Zagreb, Tbilisi, Athens, Rome, Podgorica, Bucharest, Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Ankara, and Kiev), as well as representatives of the international and regional organizations (UNDP, RACVIAC, and RCC).
The SEDM Process was launched at a meeting of defense ministers in Tirana, in 1996, with the aim to promote regional political and military cooperation, in order to strengthen peace, security and stability in the South-Eastern Europe. Next annual SEDM meeting will be hosted by Montenegro in June 2017.