Our Armed Forces are not big in size but they are good, well-trained and highly motivated
The President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces Zoran Milanović attended a ceremony marking the 19th anniversary of the formation of the Support Command in the “Tigers 1st Guards Brigade – Croatia” Barracks.
In his address to the members of the Support Command, President Milanović spoke about the importance of logistic support. “Just as good public health services and excellent education are always related to well-organised and wealthy countries, to the same extent logistic support and care are connected with organised and slightly wealthier countries. It is difficult to make a distinction between those things. Large and well-organised countries provide their fighters, their people on the front line, with good logistic support. Organized states and democracies, systems that are held accountable to their voters, do this in a quite careful, but very organized and sophisticated way,” said the President, adding that the quality of military logistics goes hand-in-hand with how well a state is organized.
“Today we had a short, but I believe an effective and clear session of the Defense Council at which we discussed the stage, the phase of the complex procedure of procuring multipurpose fighter jets for the Croatian Air Force and the Croatian Armed Forces. This is a major thing for small states whose resources are not small, but they are limited. These are big things and I am sure that the Croatian Government, which ultimately makes that decision, will make the right decision,” said President Milanović, emphasizing that this is an example and one indicator of the importance of logistics.
“Croatia has reached a sufficient level of maturity and has made sufficient headway over the last 30 years so that it can today procure state-of-the-art and high-quality things that protect Croatia. And equally important, this protects, to the greatest extent possible, the people who have chosen to protect Croatia. And the number of these people is small, it was small in the war as well – a few good people – and even now in peace it is again relatively small. Our Armed Forces are not big in size but they are good, well-trained and highly motivated,” said the President.
The President extended his congratulations to the members of the Support Command on their anniversary, pointing out that their job is to defend Croatian sovereignty and independence, territorial integrity and the country’s borders. “And that is the number one task of the Croatian Army. It is also its second and third task. Only after that comes our participation in military missions and operations. That is necessary and good for acquiring new knowledge. But above all, in accordance with the Croatian Constitution and its spirit, and given how things realistically stand and in your hearts, your task is the defense of Croatia. That’s how it was and that’s how it will be,” concluded the President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces.
Decorations, recognitions and awards were presented to the members of the Support Command at the 19th anniversary ceremony. The honours were bestowed by the President of the Republic and by the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces Admiral Robert Hranj, Chief Defense Inspector Lieutenant General Drago Matanović and the Support Command Commander Lieutenant General Mladen Fuzul.
Adviser to the President of the Republic for Defense and National Security Dragan Lozančić attended the event alongside President Milanović.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta