South-East Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) Defence Ministers have met in Belgrade on Thursday to discuss issues related to surplus arms in the region.

Opening the ministerial conference, Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac said that defence and security are one of the most important forms of cooperation between regional states.

Sutanovac noted that, after having been granted the candidate status for EU membership, Serbia started to take part in crisis-management operations and the EU Common Security Policy.

“The EU Integration is our strategic goal, and regional cooperation is one of the pillars of Serbia's foreign policy,” Sutanovac said, adding that Serbia backs EU and international security integrations of all neighbours.

Today's meeting will focus on prospects for destruction of surplus arms taking into account the specificities of each regional state, but will also address bilateral relations, Sutanovac said.

The meeting, entitled “Improving the level of cooperation in the region to address the issue of arms surplus", has brought together delegations of the defence ministries of Serbia,Croatia, Montenegro,Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia,Albania, Romania, Bulgaria,Turkey and Greece, as well as representatives of the UN, EU, NATO, OSCE, Regional Cooperation Council, and Centre for Security Cooperation 'RACVIAC'.

The SEECP was launched at at a meeting of foreign ministers of southeastern European countries in Sofia in 1996 on the initiative of Bulgaria.

Until July 2012, Serbia will chair the regional iniative which has 12 member states.