Today (20.08.2004) the Minister of defence Vlado Buckovski PhD had a farewell meeting with the Commander of the NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo (KFOR), General Holger Kammerhoff.
The topic of the talks was the current political and security situation in the region as well as the cooperation between ARM and KFOR forces, in part of securing of the border and mutual cooperation and exchange of information.

ARM and KFOR have excellent cooperation and coordination, and it is arranged for it to continue and to develop with the coming of the new KFOR commander that is taking over the duty at the beginning of next month.

In the talks between Minister Buckovski and General Kammerhoff, it was concluded that KFOR and ARM have joint goal- stabilisation of the region and preventing the actions of the extremists in the region, through coordinated activities.

The security situation in Kosovo is peaceful, assessed the KFOr commander, emphasising that the situation is being closely monitored.

Talking about the security situation on the border between Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro in the part of Kosovo, the joint assessment was that it is stable.

At the meeting, Minister Buckovski agreed with General Kammerhoff for continuation of the coordinated securing of the border, intensive exchange of intelligence information and continuous functioning of the so-called red telephone line between ARM and KFOR.

The KFOR commander General Kamerhoff denied the published statements in some Macedonian media that the KFOr forces are training members of the Kosovo protection corps for their deployment on the border with Republic of Macedonia, assessing them as rude disinformation. According to General Kammerhoff, in February next year ther ewill be review of the flow of implementation of the eight standards in Kosovo. General Kamerhoff expressed his gratitude for the useful cooperation and coordination with Minister Buckovski and ARM during the March unrests in Kosovo, assessing that they contributed towards the stabilisation of Kosovo and the region.

The KFOR commander stressed that there won’t be any decrease of the NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo any time soon.

At the end of the talks, Minister Buckovski confirmed the opinion of the Government of Republic of Macedonia that there should be work done on building of the standards and stability of Kosovo, and the issue of eventual status would be resolved at the talks between Belgrade and Pristina with mediation of the international community.

20.08.2004

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE