The Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vasko Gjurchinovski is in an official visit to the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Norway where he had a meeting with his host, the Chief of General Staff, Admiral Haakon Bruun-Hanssen.
During the meeting, General Gjurchinovski and his host Admiral Hanssen talked about the mutual military cooperation, such as the Balkan Medical Task Force Initiative as part of the smart defense project, NATO missions, the Public Affairs Regional Centre and other matters of mutual interest. General Gjurchinovski expressed his gratitude to the Kingdom of Norway for their complete support until now and also expressed his belief that the cooperation will become deeper and in a form of NATO allies.
After the meeting with Admiral Hanssen, during a working meeting in the Supreme Command the officials discussed certain topics of interest, regarding the planning of our engagement in the mutual activities which will happen after the ratification of our NATO membership. Our delegation also presented the current activities of the Army and the participation in the command structure of the Alliance.
At the Ministry of Defence, General Gjurchinovski had a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Defence, Tone Skogen where they also discussed topics of mutual interest and cooperation.
The Army delegation also visited the Norwegian Joint Headquarters in Bodo where besides the meeting with the Joint Staff Commander, Admiral Sverre Nordahl Engeness, they also visited the Air Force Command and were introduced to its mission, tasks and training.
The meetings at the highest military level confirm the excellent cooperation of the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia with the Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Norway. Admiral Hanssen was in an official visit to our country in August last year.
In the period until now, the cooperation was noticeable by the participation of the Macedonian medical surgical team at the Norwegian field hospital in the period from 2008 to 2012 in Maymana, Afghanistan, as well as by the cooperation in the area of military training and education.
The Kingdom of Norway donated the light maneuver hospital, which is part of our Army, sophisticated equipment for protection of the telecommunications, medical material and computer equipment, as well as mentoring and financial support of the project “Lepeza” and the Public Affairs Regional Centre.
