Commander EUFOR, Major General Friedrich Schrötter, formally handed over the report from Exercise QUICK RESPONSE to the Minister of Defence BiH, Marina Pendeš, and Chief of the Joint Staff, Lieutenant General Anto Jeleč at the Ministry of Defence Building in Sarajevo today. The report contains a summary of the exercise as well as lessons learned from the EUFOR perspective with the aim of ensuring continued improvement in successive multi-national operations.
The report concluded that the contribution of the Armed Forces BiH (AFBiH) to such a EUFOR Peace Support Operation (PSO) was of great value to both sides. This cooperation clearly revealed that AFBiH are able to perform PSO tasks in a professional manner.
Minister of Defence Marina Pendeš said “I would like to thank EUFOR for their support and I hope all of our partners recognise the progress made over the last few years towards a more stable country and that they continue to support our goals”.
COMEUFOR Major General Schrötter said “the Exercise proved the good work that can be done between our cooperating forces. It provides us both with a great deal of confidence for our future partnership”.
Over 750 troops and 70 supporting vehicles took part in Exercise QUICK RESPONSE 2016 from the 25th of September to the 6th of October, successfully conducting training and tasking injected by the Exercise Control Team. With a Brigade sized force, both AFBiH, EUFOR and the contributing nations were able to complete the larger enhanced scenarios delegated to them.
EUFOR Operation Althea is currently made up of soldiers from 15 EU member states and 5 partner nations. Its primary roles are to provide capacity building and training support to the Armed Forces of BiH and to support BiH efforts to maintain a safe and secure environment, whilst providing support to the overall EU comprehensive strategy for BiH.
Minister Pendeš and Major General Schrötter in discussion
