On 28 January 2009, at the National Assembly House, a roundtable was held on the Draft Strategy on National Security and Draft Strategy on the Defense of the Republic of Serbia, organised by the Centre for Civil-Military Relations. The goal of the roundtable was to initiate public debate on the most important strategic documents to be passed in Serbia for the first time since it gained statehood.

Deputies Bozidar Delic, Vlajko Senic, Konstantin Samofalov and Zoran Ostojic took part in the roundtable. They pinpointed the fact that these strategically important documents do not precisely define whether Serbia will remain militarily neutral in future or strive for NATO membership, as their basic problem.

Talking about the draft strategies prepared by the Ministry of Defense, Konstantin Samofalov (DP) recalled the official state position that membership in the Partnership for Peace programme is the right measure of cooperation with NATO at this moment. He said that both strategies will be discussed by the assembly Committee on Defense and Security and appealed to the politicians to reach a consensus regarding their adoption.

Deputy Bozidar Delic (SPP) said that the documents mention Serbia’s integration into the European Union, but that the issue of its Euro-Atlantic integration is in dispute. He did not agree with the estimate expressed in the document that the danger of armed aggression against Serbia is significantly reduced, because he believes it is in progress considering that a part of the country is under occupation.

G17 Plus deputy Vlajko Senic stated that Serbia should become a NATO member, and that its policy of military neutrality cannot be the state’s strategic commitment. He stressed that the reform of security services is not only in the national interest, but also a pre-condition for the implementation of the national security strategy.

Deputy Zoran Ostojic (LDP) also spoke in favour of redefining the decision on Serbia’s military neutrality. He said that the defense strategy does not appropriately define the national goals and objected that the document pays no attention to energy security.

In the continuation, the participants of the roundtable conducted a debate on the concept of national defense and security. The representatives of the Centre for Civil-Military Relations, Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and the Fund for an Open Society talked on the occasion.

Professors of the Faculty of Political Sciences and Union University in Belgrade, as well as representatives of the Security Information Agency and Balkan Trust for Democracy addressed the participants of the roundtable on the topic dealing with the policy and system of national security in the Republic of Serbia.