The agreement between the governments of Serbia and Croatia whose ratification the Serbian parliament discussed on Thursday envisages that the two countries should conduct joint military exercises.

Elaborating on the document before the Serbian MPs, Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said that the agreement opens possibilities for conducting joint military exercises.

According to the agreement, the defence cooperation between Serbia and Croatia will be realised through official visits of two countries' representatives, meetings, seminars and conferences, training and educational programmes,
participation in joint military exercises and other means of cooperation on which competent bodies reach and agreement.

The agreement defines main goals and principles on which the two countries' defence cooperation would be based, with a view to facilitating the development of bilateral relations as a whole and strengthening peace, stability and development of relations with European and other world countries.

The agreement signed on June 8, 2010, notes that the two countries' cooperation rests on the principle of mutual respect and equality and should be realised in keeping with national legislatures and principles of the international law.

The cooperation would be realised in the areas of security policy and defence planning, military-scientific cooperation, military education, military medicine, military police, peace-keeping operations, protection from atomic, biological and chemical hazards and similar.

Malovic said that the defence cooperation between Serbia and Croatia is relatively intensive but there is still room for improvements.