Mektić: Joint exercise will strengthen BiH and NATO partnership

BiH Minister of Security Dragan Mektić met today with the Head of NATO's Civil Emergency Planning Section, Laurence Maier-Mineman, ahead of a joint exercise of the Armed Forces of BiH and NATO in case of natural disasters, which will be held in September 2017 in the vicinity of Tuzla, writes Patria.

Minister Mektić stated that the exercise has three goals, primarily to strengthen the partnership between BiH and NATO.

- It is good that we have a high degree of partnership and that we use NATO's capacities and capabilities, their experience and knowledge in all these situations, especially when it comes to this exercise of eliminating consequences in case of disasters - Mektić stated.

Furthermore, the exercise will show how trained our forces are and how we act in situations of major natural disasters, where human lives and material assets of the state and citizens are endangered.

As a third benefit, the Minister of Security mentioned achieving self-sustainability.

- So that a disaster does not happen where we wait for someone to come and help us, but rather we should have a self-sustaining system and be able to respond at least to smaller-scale disasters - Mektić stated.