Zeman opens exhibition on Czech-Serbian military cooperation

BELGRADE - President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman has opened an exhibition titled "The History of Czech-Serbian military cooperation" at the Gallery of the Military Museum in Belgrade.

I am opening this exhibition in remembrance of courage and at the same time as a warning that we do not live in a safe world today, and that what we most need are brave men, Zeman said while opening the exhibition in the presence of Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Rodic late on Tuesday.

On display are a few dozen pictures showing military exercises carried out jointly by the former Yugoslav and Czechoslovakian armies, which show many Serbian generals wearing the Order of the White Lion, Czechoslovakia's highest decoration, the Czech president said.

Drawing a comparison between the former and contemporary enemies, Zeman said that the enemy of today is international terrorism and that its most apparent form is Islamic fundamentalism, cautioning that the world would be wise not to underestimate the danger.

Zeman then signed the guestbook, where he expressed "respect for the courage of Serbian soldiers."

The head of Belgrade's Military Museum, Lt. Col. Ivan Mijatovic, and Col. Ales Knizek, director of the Military History Institute in Prague, said that the exhibition illustrates a century and a half of military cooperation between the Czech Republic and Serbia.

We are linked by one hundred years of mutual relations. Our ancestors fought in both World War One and World War Two. In the first war they won and obtained two independent states and in the second, they defeated German fascism, Knizek said.

The opening of the exhibition, organized by the Museum of Military History in Prague and the Military Museum...