Chief of GS visits Austria and Germany
The Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, General Mirko Šundov was on a two-day official visit the Republic of Austria from 16-17 April 2018, accompanied by the Commander of the Croatian Defence Academy “Dr. Franjo Tuđman” Major General Mate Pađen and the Deputy Head of the Planning Directorate of the General Staff, Colonel Emilio Turina.
The Croatian delegation met with a delegation of the Austrian Armed Forces, headed by the Chief of the General Staff, General Othmar Commenda.
The two sides discussed the options for further promotion of the bilateral co-operation of the two armed forces, reviewing the long common history and the future within the European Union. They also deliberated on the co-operation focussed on the response to the common security challenges in Europe and umderlined the importance of stabilisation of a less developed region of southeast Europe.
The delegations undelrined the joint engagement of the Austrian and Croatian Armed Forces in the UNDOF in the Golan Heights, within the EU battlegroups and within the EU Pooling and Sharing Initiative and the PESCO projects respectively.
The Croatian side underlined that the Republic of Austria was one of its most important partners and the most important of non-NATO nations.
The meeting agenda featured the military education systems, the exchange of students, the role of the military in the migrant crisis and the reform of the Croatian Armed Forces, as well as the CEDC initiative, with the emphasis on joint action plan and joint military training activities and the preparations for the presidency of the Council of the EU.
The Croatian and the Austrian sides praised the co-operation in military education and exercises, especially of the peace missions training centres and foreign languages school, and expressed the desire to further connect the defence academies.
The Croatian delegation visited the Theresianische Militärakademie, and was welcomed by its Commander, Major General Karl Pronhagl and the Commander of the National Defence Academy Lieutenant General Erich Csitkovits. The delegation members were familiarised with the history of the Academy and discussed the modalities for the future co-operation with the Croatian Defence Academy “Dr. Franjo Tuđman”.
After the visit to Austria the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces is visiting the Federal Republic of Germany – Croatia’s main European strategic partner, where he will attend the formal handover of duty between the present and the oncoming Chief of General Staff of the Bundeswehr, General Volker Wieker and Lieutenant General Eberhard Zorn.
Germany and Croatia have run very intensive and productive bilateral defence co-operation, as exemplified by the joint deployment to Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and KFOR, joint engagement in the EU Common Security and Defence Policy and the EU battlegroups (EUBG 2016, EUBG 2020 and in Operation EU NAVFOR – ATALANTA) and by the joint contribution to the stabilisation of southeast Europe.
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