On 23.04.2012 the Association of veterans and military reserve in the Republic of Macedonia organized the Fifth International Scientific-technical conference on the subject "The Role of the Active Composition and the Reserve of the Armed forces in their missions and duties in regional and global security environment in the 21^st century".



Contribution to the event was given by the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gjorgje Ivanov, PhD, the Minister of Defence, Fatmir Besimi, PhD, the chief of general staff – major general Goranco Koteski, former chiefs of the HQ, generals, and representatives of similar organizations in the region, representatives of the diplomatic corps in the Republic of Macedonia, NGOs and the media.

The Conference was opened by the President of the Republic of Macedonia, H.E. Gjorgje Ivanov, PhD, who spoke for the achievements of the Republic of Macedonia, the 20^th anniversary of ARM, the role of the active composition and the reserve forces. The President also mentioned the imposed dispute with the Southern neighbor as the single reason for Macedonia's waiting to join NATO.

The second speaker at the conference was the MoD, Fatmir Besimi, PhD who discussed the active composition and the reserve as well as the fact that they should be prepared to fulfill the obligations which are being undertaken according to the strategic goals. Mr. Besimi underlined the fact the Republic of Macedonia fulfilled all the criteria for NATO membership and contributes to the international NATO led missions. The Minister acknowledged our soldiers and emphasized the fact that they are our best ambassadors in the world. Regarding the countries in the region, Mr. Besimi said that these countries are no longer peace importers and that they've grown to be peace exporters.

Major-general Goranco Kotevski, the chief of the general staff of ARM spoke about the active transformation of the defence system being our goal. During the past 20 years ARM has made several transformations and became a professional army which today is mobile and has capacities for fast deployment. He underlined that following the example of the other armies we will build a relation between the active and the reserve composition of the armed forces. The future reserve composition should be seen as the armed composition, very similar to the active one.

Following the official opening, several other participants presented their opinions on this topic. Among them were General Gary E. Huffman, NATO Command in Naples, Metodi Hadzi Janev, PhD, the brigade general Dimce Petrovski, the first major-general of ARM, general lieutenant-colonel Mitre Arsovski, etc.

The President of the EACM, Lazar Elenovski, stated that this topic is one of the key topics for further transformation of the armed forces. He underlined that the Republic of Macedonia according to the strategic direction towards the Euro-Atlantic integration has committed to abandon the old territorial concept of the army and is building a new professional, deployable army that is capable of facing the modern security threats. The Republic of Macedonia has no other alternative except the Euro-Atlantic integrations and all the reforms, especially the defence reforms, were implemented in coordination with NATO. Mr. Elenovski emphasized the essential strategic contributions of ARM and MoD for the country, the contributions to the world peace and security and the contribution of the defence reforms towards the fulfillment of the criteria for NATO membership which were completed in 2008.

In the speech Elenovski mentioned that the Concept on the reserve forces was adopted in 2007. The Republic of Macedonia should build its own form of active reserve forces which will be accommodated to the needs of the country. He underlined the need of consensus on political and defence level, adoption of a legal frame and a fast implementation of the future model of the reserve composition. Elenovski concluded his speech by mentioning the need for paying more attention to this key military component which represents 20-25% of the total armed forces of the Republic of Macedonia.