BELEK - Turkey's top general underscored the need for regional and global cooperation and solidarity for security and stability.
Chief of Turkey's General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said that this solidarity should be a real one, not remain only in words.
"Today, we are against different types of threats, risks and problems when compared with the pre-cold war and cold war eras," Buyukanit said during the opening session of the Second Meeting of Balkan Chiefs of General Staff in the southern province of Antalya.
Buyukanit defined threats and risks as asymmetric, multi-dimensional and unforeseen, and said that today, countries had to defend themselves against risks and threats stemming from terrorism, lack of energy, insufficient foodstuffs and global warming.
Gen. Buyukanit said that it was not so likely for countries to cope with those threats on their own, and underlined the need for cooperation, exchange of information and solidarity.
Buyukanit also underscored importance of integration of regional countries to NATO and European Union (EU) as of 2004, and said that NATO and the EU were playing a significant role for regional welfare and security.
Gen. Henri Bentegeat, the chairman of the EU Military Committee; Giampoala Di Paola, the head of the NATO Military Committee; chiefs of general staff of Romania, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina are participating in the conference that will end later on Monday.
The first conference was held in Greece in 2007.
(BRC-MS)
(MIL)