At the sitting held on 29 April 2026, the members Defence and Internal Affairs Committee considered the basis for negotiation and conclusion of the General Defence Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia/Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the State of Israel/Ministry of Defence of the State of Israel regarding the exchange and reciprocal protection of classified information in the field of defence and the text of the General Defence Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Serbia/Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia and the Government of the State of Israel/Ministry of Defence of the State of Israel regarding the exchange and reciprocal protection of classified information in the field of defence, submitted by the Government requesting consent by the competent committee for the provisional implementation of the Agreement pending its entry into force.
The sitting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Defence, Nebojsa Nikolic, Acting Secretary of the Ministry, and Marko Jovanovic, Independent Advisor for Contracting Affairs of the Material Resources Sector Joint Affairs Department, who presented the aforementioned act to the Committee members. He explained the main reasons for concluding said Agreement, noting that bilateral relations between Serbia and Israel are good, as is economic cooperation, and Israel is an important trade partner for Serbia. Defence and military cooperation between Serbia and Israel is good and concluding this Agreement shows Serbia's intention to improve bilateral relations with the State of Israel in the field of defence and security, Jovanovic said. He also added that this type of agreement is a general security agreement in the field of defence and as such creates conditions for cooperation between state bodies and business entities in the field of the defence industry, and that the initiative for its conclusion came from the Israeli side.
In the discussion that followed, the members of the Committee and representatives of the Ministry of Defence exchanged opinions on the appropriateness of the moment in which this Agreement is concluded, the reasons why this type of document is needed when domestic legislation already regulates the area of data confidentiality, why there is an insistence on the provisional implementation of the Agreement before it enters into force, whether the Agreement will be applied throughout the territory of Serbia, that is, on the territory of Kosovo-Metohija as well. The Committee members and Ministry representatives also discussed the improvement of the cooperation between Serbia and Israel in the field of defence, the bilateral relations between the two states whose peoples have suffered throughout history, the absence of the Minister of Defence from the Committee sitting, the control role of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, and more.
Following the discussion, the Committee, by majority vote, granted consent to the provisional implementation of the Agreement, and will inform the National Assembly Speaker and the Government of the Republic of Serbia of the decision.
The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairman MA Milovan Drecun, and attended by the following Committee members and deputy members: Prof. Dr Zoran Dragisic, Slodoban Ilic, Goran Spasojevic, Prof. Dr Mitar Kovac, Petar Boskovic, Dragan Markovic, Tomislav Jankovic, Jasmina Obradovic, Prof. Dr Marko Milenkovic, Marija Jevdjic, Bogdan Radovanovic, Ugljesa Markovic and Marinika Tepic, as well as Djordje Stankovic, who is not member of the Committee.
