Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said he had received assurances from Portuguese officials that the country would not unilaterally reduce the number of its soldiers in KFOR, which Serbia considered very important for security in Kosovo and the region.

"We received assurances today that Portugal would not independently reduce its forces in Kosovo, which means a continued higher level of security for everyone who lives there," Sutanovac told BETA.

After speaking to the ministers of defense, foreign affairs and the speaker of the parliament of Portugal, Sutanovac said disagreement on the future status of Kosovo had been discussed, but that he had thanked his collocutors for its military participation in KFOR. The Portuguese contingent is the largest individual country unit in the province.

Sutanovac went on to say that the take-away from all meetings had been that Serbia was making great effort in the process of association with the European Union and that Portuguese officials had told him that his country had Portugal's full support on the road to the EU.

Sutanovac listed cooperation in military medicine, military education, peacekeeping operations, but also in the area of the defense industry, that is, through linking the two countries' economies, as possible directions in developing cooperation between the Serbian and Portuguese defense systems.

"We can state that cooperation in the area of defense is the pillar of cooperation between the two countries," Sutanovac said, adding that Army of Serbia Chief of Staff Miloje Miletic had received an invitation to visit Portugal this year, and that Portuguese Defense Minister Augusto Santos Silva had accepted an invitation to visit Serbia.

Aside from Silva, Sutanovac also met with Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado and Assembly of the Republic President Jaime Jose de Matos da Gama.

Sutanovac was the first defense minister from Belgrade to visit Portugal.