Western Balkans Countries Praise Regional Cooperation Achieved through SEESAC at the First Conference of States Parties of the Arms Trade Treaty

The First Conference of States Parties of the Arms Trade Treaty’s (ATT) is currently taking place in Cancun, Mexico (24 - 27 August 2015), bringing together the 72 States that have thus far ratified this important Treaty to discuss the next steps in its implementation. 

High-level representatives of four countries from the Western Balkans region are partaking in this event. On this occasion, they reconfirmed their countries’ support for the ATT and particularly stressed the importance of regional cooperation for progress and successful implementation of the Treaty.

Specifically, they shared with the ATT States Parties the importance of the regional cooperation on arms transfers control achieved through the SEESAC’s Arms Transfers Control Programme.

Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, noted  that “regional approach is another important aspect of the arms export control, including the cooperation in fulfilling obligations under the ATT. I would like to emphasize the excellent experience in the Western Balkans”, Mr. Dačić continued. “The states, on the regional level, established a successful and effective cooperation in the field of export control through SEESAC – Center for Small Arms and Light Weapon in Southeast Europe. The support made by SEESAC in this area represents a successful regional project.” (Read the full statement)

H.E. Ferit Hoxha, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Albania to the UN, recognized that “legislation improvements, institutional arrangements, sharing of experience and best practices and proper evaluation” are tasks that all States Parties have before them. On this road, Mr. Hoxha added, the “process of cooperation and mutual support among countries, especially at the regional and sub-regional level, like SEESAC, is of outmost importance”.  (Read the full statement)

H.E. Danijel Međan, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Croatia to the UN, also insisted on the importance of cooperation, stated in the Treaty: “Our expertise and lessons learnt in the implementation of the legislation are shared with our regional partners”. He explained that “Croatia publishes detailed annual arms export and import reports that are publicly available” and that “this data is fed (…) to the regional report of the Southeast Europe” published by SEESAC. (Read the full statement)

H.E. Milorad Šćepanović, Director General for Multilateral Affairs and Regional Cooperation from the Montenegrin Ministry for Foreign Affairs and European Integration, reminded the audience that “as significant achievements as [the] adoption and [the] entry into force of the ATT were, this was just the first step” and that the next step is to move from “adoption to effective implementation”. (Read the full statement)

Since 2006, SEESAC has been supporting the authorities of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in strengthening their national capacities to control arms transfers through regional cooperation.  One of the pillars of SEESAC regional work have been the Regional Information Exchange Process (RIEP) meetings, which gather officials involved in the licensing process in an informal discussion format. Ongoing since 2009, RIEP has significantly increased transparency and directly contributed to regional confidence building, knowledge transfer and information sharing.

Through RIEP framework, SEESAC has facilitated a creation of a number of tools, tailor-made for RIEP participating countries, including: a joint Brokering Database - a truly unique tool, designed to help participating countries exchange important information and be better informed as they conduct their daily arms control duties; the Weapons Categorization Tool, designed to help with accurate reporting to international bodies; and Toolkit for Addressing Unauthorized Re-export or Re-transfer of Arms and Ammunition, among others.

Since 1 January 2010, SEESAC's Arms Export Control activities have been generously supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway. In July 2013, the Norwegian MFA decided to continue its support through the Phase II of SEESAC’s Arms Export Control Programme in the Western Balkans project, which will last until June 2015.