Response to potential natural disasters: BiH hosts 1,400 participants of a major NATO exercise

By September 29, BiH will host the field exercise of NATO EADRCC, which deals with disaster consequences, "Bosnia and Herzegovina 2017", in the wider northeastern Bosnia region.

Preparations for this exercise with civil structures of NATO, which will strengthen cooperation between NATO and BiH, have been underway for more than a year.

- This exercise is very interesting for BiH as it is an opportunity to gain new training, education, and learn new lessons from various situations simulating certain accidents, endangering property and citizens' lives - said Dragan Mektić, Minister of Security of BiH.

This exercise will gather 1,400 participants from 34 countries, mostly from NATO structures.

- This exercise is a great opportunity for our civil structures to learn a lot in terms of protection and rescue. This is also an opportunity to learn to act together with similar or identical structures from outside BiH - said Mektić, recalling what happened in 2014 during the floods.

He reminded that natural disasters causing great damage and casualties occur in BiH and emphasized that this exercise will provide an effective response to preventing the consequences of these disasters.