Marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control

14. Jun 2021.
On the occasion of marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control, a solemn session of the Sub-Regional Consultative Commission was held today, within the presidency of Serbia.

The session was opened by the State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Nemanja Starović, who pointed out in his presentation that the implementation of the Agreement is in accordance with one of the basic foreign policy priorities of Serbia, which is improving good neighborly relations and developing regional cooperation. He emphasized that preserving peace and prosperity in the region is the highest interest and goal of Serbia.

Starović stated that the successful implementation of the Agreement in the past 25 years testifies to the high level of cooperation, understanding, transparency and trust between the Parties, as well as the trust gained by the international community. He pointed out that the Agreement, in terms of its qualities and overall scope, has a significance that exceeds the boundaries of our region and shows that this model of arms control can contribute to the establishment of a military balance in other regional crisis hotspots.

At today's session, which was held in video format, representatives of the parties to the Agreement, the international community, the OSCE, the member states of the Contact Group and the Centre for Security Cooperation RACVIAC, spoke about the political significance and results achieved in the implementation of the Agreement.

The Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control was signed on 14 June 1996 in Florence and is part of the military dimension of the Dayton Agreement, based on Article IV, Annex 1B. It established an arms control regime based on agreed limits for five categories of weapons – tanks, artillery weapons (caliber greater than 75mm), armored combat vehicles, fighter planes and attack helicopters. The states parties to the Agreement are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia.

The Agreement is the first and so far, the only successfully implemented mechanism for controlling conventional weapons in the world.