Defence Ministry

Low pay, negative selection in promotion, poor working conditions and the lack of training and development are prompting many staff to quit the defence ministry and the military in Serbia, a new report by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy says.

Russia on Tuesday said that Turkey was trying to push 130,000 refugees from Syria into Greece, the Interfax news agency cited the Defence Ministry as saying.

The two thirds of these refugees - that Turkey is pushing from temporary camps in Syria - are Afghans, Iraqis and Africans, not Syrians, it added. 

[Reuters]

NATO presence in the Black Sea region is a strategic imperative and it is Romania's right to demand this, said Interim Defence Minister Nicolae Ciuca at the 2019 activity review of the Defence Ministry, on Tuesday. "For us, ensuring a more robust NATO presence at the Black Sea has been the main objective.

Serbia's Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin attended a commemoration in Montenegro on Tuesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the murder of Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic in 2000.

Cyprus has signed a contract with France for the purchase of military equipment worth 240 million euros, the country's Defence Ministry announced on Friday, confirming recent reports in French media.

The ministry noted that due to the sensitive nature of the matter, which falls under national security, it does not intend to disclose any further information for the time being.

Minister of National Defense Nicolae Ciuca was in Portugal for a two-day official visit at the invitation of his counterpart, Joao Gomes Cravinho, to set the main steps for the strengthening of the Romanian Air Force F-16 multirole aircraft fleet by the purchase of the next five fighter jets, the Defence Ministry said in a release.

Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria are all withdrawing troops from Iraq following the recent flare-up of hostilities between the US and Iran.

Romania and Croatia said on Tuesday that they have joined other NATO countries in withdrawing military personnel from Iraq following the Baghdad parliament's call for foreign troops to leave the country in reaction to the US killing of a top Iranian general near the Iraqi capital on January 4.

Russia deployed its first regiment of hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles on Dec. 27, the Defence Ministry said, a move which President Vladimir Putin has boasted puts his country in a class of its own.   

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed Putin of the deployment, according to a ministry statement that did not disclose where the missiles were located. 

The Defence Ministry reacted angrily on Wednesday evening after the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, criticised it for hosting a promotional event in Belgrade for a book that denies court findings that Bosnian Serb forces were responsible for the May 1995 massacre in Tuzla.