Lecture by General Abrial at the Croatian Military College

During his visit to the Republic of Croatia, General Abrail also met the President of Croatia Ivo Josipović, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić, Minister of Defence Ante Kotromanović and Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Drago Lovrić.

When addressing the audience at a lecture related to NATO “Smart Defence”, General Abrial reminded on the strategic environment and the importance of rational spending of available resources to achieve better results.

When explaining the idea of ​​”Smart Defence”, the General emphasized cooperation, specialization and joint cooperation in developing capabilities in order to achieve more.

Speaking of modern threats, he singled out piracy, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyber threats, organized crime, adding that these were the problems that would be very difficult to solve by a country alone, and where mutual cooperation was needed. The General said we should be a step ahead and emphasized the importance of cooperation with industry and academic community in the struggle for security and stability.

At the end of the lecture General Abrial presented NATO Meritorious Service Medal to CAF Colonel Krešimir Lokas. General Abrial also addressed Croatian media saying: “A Smart Defence is an initiative that should help nations to continue to develop the necessary capabilities and fulfill specified tasks. Smart Defence is the initiative that will help us to better and more efficiently spend our budgets allocated by our nations for defence. Smart Defence has no intend to reduce the budget but to ensure better use of funds from it. And this will be achieved by working more together”.