BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/DS
The head of the NATO Military Liaison Office in Belgrade, Italian Gen. Tommaso Vitale, said on Dec. 11 that, almost 15 years since the signing of the Partnership for Peace, the public could not see how much NATO and Serbia worked together.
We must never forget the past, but we can transcend it, he told the Council for Strategic Policy website (cfsp.rs) in an interview, and said that was what Serbia and NATO were doing with the partnership-- looking toward a better future.
The head of the NATO mission would not comment on the opening of a Russian military office in Belgrade, saying this was a question for the Serbian or Russian authorities. He stressed that NATO fully respected Serbia's policy of military neutrality.
Gen. Vitale considers relations between Serbia and NATO to be stable, mutually beneficial and founded on mutual respect.
He said NATO was very satisfied with the level of cooperation with Serbia and considered the country a valued partner. It is up to Serbia to decide how it wants to develop the partnership, Gen. Vitale said, specifying that, in accordance with its own needs, Serbia could choose among 1,400-plus activities to do with NATO.
He stressed that, in line with the U.N. mandate, KFOR remained fully committed to the protection of the Decani monastery as an important religious center to the Serb community.
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