Most of the chiefs of general staff of the region’s armies, including the first man of the Serbian Army, Milan Mojsilović, at some point in their careers served in NATO structures, the official biographies of those people showed.
According to the Balkan Security Network portal, out of a total of 11 chiefs of general staff, seven served in Brussels, one in Naples, two in international missions, and only the first man of the BiH Armed Forces never served in NATO structures.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, General Milan Mojsilović, who assumed this position at the end of 2018, was the head of the Serbian Military Representation to NATO from 2013 to 2017.
The portal states that Mojsilović also had “the most correct work and military biography”.
“He participated in armed conflicts in the 90s in the ranks of the JNA and the VJ, for which he was awarded several times. During the 1999 war, he was in charge of planning the defense against a ground attack by NATO forces from Macedonia. During his career, Mojsilović commanded a platoon, a company, a battalion, a brigade, an operational command and the Land Army. He was in charge of cooperation with KFOR forces after the end of the war in 1999. He went through all the hierarchical levels that an officer can go through in his career,” the text reads.
It is added that the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, Admiral Robert Hranj, was the Deputy Military Representative of his country to NATO and the EU from 2009 to 2012.
The first man of the Montenegrin army, Brigadier General Zoran Lazarevic, has been a deputy and adviser in the Military Representation of Montenegro to NATO and the EU since June 2016, while the Chief of the General Staff of the Army of North Macedonia, Lieutenant General Vasko Đurčinovski, has served as a military representative to NATO and the EU since 2016. . until 2018, when he entered the position he holds today.
The Slovenian Chief of the General Staff, Major General Robert Glavaš, spent three years at the NATO Joint Command in Naples, and he is distinguished from other colleagues by the fact that he was the only one who did not graduate from the military academy, but from the JNA Reserve Officers’ School in Zadar.
The former Chief of the General Staff of the Hungarian Defense Forces, Lt. Gen. Romulus Rusin Sendy, participated in missions in Iraq as an advisor and in Afghanistan, as commander of the reconstruction team, while his successor, Gen. Gabor Borondi, was the head of the Hungarian military mission to NATO and the EU.
The first man of the Greek army, General Konstantinos Floros, spent three years in the representative office of his country at the NATO Headquarters as a staff officer, while the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Albania, Brigadier General Arben Kinđi, never served with NATO structures, but participated in the combat mission of that Alliance in Afghanistan.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Romania, General Daniel Petrescu, was the representative of his country in the NATO High Command for Transformation in Norfolk, USA, while his Bulgarian colleague, Admiral Emil Eftimov, was in charge of regional security cooperation in the structures of the NATO Headquarters in Brussels from 2011 to 2016. . years.
One of the few in the region without any service abroad or multinational operations is the Chief of the Joint Staff of the BiH Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Senad Mašović.