Maqedonci:  Vučić is delaying the dialog by hoping for Russia’s victory in Ukraine

Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci stated today that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is delaying the dialogue with Kosovo waiting for the end of the war in Ukraine.

“We estimate that the current policy of President Vučić in Serbia is neglecting the issue of concluding the dialogue, the agreement, in order to wait for the outcome of the war in Ukraine, the outcome in order to take sides that they consider good for themselves,” he said at the Balkan Disinformation Summit organized by The Geopost.

As he said, the global security environment has changed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The whole global security environment has changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and this is also reflected in the incidents and fighting in the Middle East. But also in the increase of tensions in the Western Balkans, more precisely in the north.” of our country, where I guess the war in Ukraine, i.e. the Russian invasion in Ukraine, has also influenced in a way the destabilization of the Western Balkans region and the promotion of certain elements within the state structures of Serbia, but also other elements to be found in the region to develop stability activities and undermine the integration of the region into the European Union and NATO. This was openly expressed on September 24 last year, when a group of armed and uniformed paramilitaries, supported by the security structures of the Republic of Serbia, attempted to seize land, which constituted a partial invasion of part of the territory of our country. I estimate that this did not happen by chance, but also with the influence that the Russian secret service has on Serbian society, but also on the institutions of the Republic of Serbia. We have evidence that these groups, based on the facts found, used advanced weapons in the state factories of the Republic of Serbia and were trained by military instructors, and we suspect that in this period since the Russian humanitarian center exists in Niš, they can be trained and prepared by this center,” he continued.

He also spoke about hybrid threats as forms of war, the use of which he said was increasing in predominantly autocratic countries. At the Balkan disinformation summit, Maqedonci also said that the department, which he leads, and the Kosovo Security Forces have the necessary mechanisms to deal with it.

The Minister of Defense informed the audience that they are working on building a national training center for cyber security, which is also part of the fight against disinformation and hybrid warfare.

He announced that the opening of this center is planned for March 26, when the training curriculum will be signed.

“Normally, the response to hybrid threats must be given through a hybrid approach, which means the commitment of many elements of state power to face this challenge of modern times, a challenge that has in fact existed before, but hybrid threats as forms.” Warfare is increasingly used by predominantly autocratic countries, which usually do not include this ethical and moral part in their policies. In this regard, the Ministry of Defense and the Kosovo Security Forces have their own mechanisms to deal with it. Everything starts with an analysis that is carried out in our system, more precisely in our decision-making processes. The first phase is always the analysis, which means drawing conclusions from this analysis and separating the assumptions from the facts, but also the part of disinformation, a method that has been highlighted recently. Disinformation, in terms of defense, also means the part of operational deception, where the adversary misinforms not only with the aim of creating an ambiguous environment, but also to provide the forces defending the territory or the country with the opportunity for operational deception “This has been seen many times,” he said./TheGeopost