On 14th of May 2019, in “Ilinden” barracks in Skopje, North Macedonia, members of the Steering Board and the Standing Organization of the Balkan Medical Task Force on a ceremony marked the BMTF Day and reaching the full operational capability.
On the ceremony, beside the Deputy Minister of Defence of the host country – North Macedonia, Mr. Bekim Maksuti, representatives of the diplomatic corps in North Macedonia, military and defense attachés, generals of the Army of Republic of North Macedonia, commanders of the units of the Army, as well as respected guests from all six nations members Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, and partner nations Kingdom of Norway and United States of America were present.
BMTF Commander, LTC Žarko Mićović, Phd, emphasized the mission of the BMTF, as well as the previous participations of the unit on several multinational exercises: “Saber Guardian 2017”, “Srbija 2018” and “Vigorous warrior 2019” and the achieved results, Initial operational capability in the beggining and finaly the Full operational capability for responding in the Balkan region.
Mr. Krste Malinkovski, Chairman of the Steering Board stressed the regional efforts in building unit composed of this six nations and with the existing capabilities in personnel and equipment. These six countries have practically implemented the “SMART DEFENSE” concept. Also, he underlined that BMTF will continue to upgrade and improve its capabilities for expanding the area of operation beyond the Balkan region and contribute to global peace and security.
At the end, Certificates of Appreciation were presented to the people for significant contribution during the process of identifying medical operational regional capacities and developing the concept for the BMTF, as well as Certificates of Appreciation to the personnel for the excellent performance in the process of medical certification of the BMTF.
