18th Croatian contingent of the Croatian Armed Forces was sent today, first September, to the ??ISAF in Afghanistan. A farewell ceremony was organized in the 91st Airbase of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence. The ceremony was attended by the envoy of the President Zlatko Gareljic, Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic, CAF Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Drago Lovric, and other senior officials of Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces and Ministry of Interior.
18th Croatian contingent of the Croatian Armed Forces was sent today, first September, to the ??ISAF in Afghanistan. A farewell ceremony was organized in the 91st Airbase of the Croatian Air Force and Air Defence. The ceremony was attended by the envoy of the President Zlatko Gareljic, Defence Minister Davor Bozinovic, CAF Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Drago Lovric, and other senior officials of Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces and Ministry of Interior.
The program started with the line-up of members of the contingent and with report to the Defence Minister by a Deputy Commander of the 18th HRVCON Colonel Mario Sambolec.
In his address, Minister Bozinovic expressed confidence that this, 18th contingent, would contribute with its work to the specific values ??that are identified with Croatian soldiers in the world. Pointing out that the Croatian soldiers in ISAF have been equipped to the highest standards, the Minister expressed his satisfaction that the majority of Croatian efforts in ISAF were aimed at training the Afghan Armed Forces as a key contributor to the future stabilization of the country. Minister particularly welcomed soldiers from the A-5 countries that would be deployed together with the Croatian contingent.
Chief of General Staff General Lovric addressed primarily soldiers who already have experience of participation in ISAF, who can attest to the importance of good preparation for the mission and pre-deployment training. The General said that the most important task of the contingent was mentoring, training and support to ANA.
During his address, Defence Avisor of the Ppesident Gareljic said that the Republic of Croatia for years makes a significant contribution to world peace and stability by participation in peacekeeping missions. The largest share in the contribution have Croatian contingents that have been deployed in ISAF, Gareljic said.
Together with members of the 18th Croatian contingent travel 6 members of the armed forces of member states of the US-Adriatic Charter (A-5), who will be deployed as mentor staff within the School of Military Police of the Afghan National Army (ANA) in Kabul. These are two members from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Montenegro, three members of the Macedonian Armed Forces and one member of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania. These members also had pre-deployment training held in July in the training center for international military operations, in Rakitje, organized by the Republic of Croatia as a country that has taken the role of leading NATO nation for the development of institutional training of the Afghan National Army Military Police and the establishment of the ANA Military Police School in Kabul.
18th Croatian contingent, numbering 312 members of the Armed Forces will be deployed to Regional Command North in Mazar-e Sharif and the Regional Command in Kabul. Upon arrival in the area of ??operations, members of the 18th contingent will take over the duties of the previous contingent, among other things, duties of the task force of the Military Police, of infantry task forces, staff personnel, the operational mentoring liaison teams, police operational mentoring liaison teams (4 police members), duties in the Military Police School in Kabul, and duties of the air mentoring team.
Also, for the first time we will have mentors in the military training center in Kabul.
According to the Croatian Parliament, we can send up to 350 members of the Armed Forces to the peacekeeping operation ISAF in Afghanistan.
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