The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, accompanied by the Minister of Defense, Mr. Zoran Jolevski and the Chief of General Staff of the Macedonian Army, Lieutenant General Goranco Koteski, attended today in Radozda the methodical-demonstrative tactical exercise "Neutralizing a Hostile Vessel" conducted by the members of the Special Operations Regiment and the Air Brigade.

We intended to prevent it in the initial period and thus the exercise was conducted at the border line of the Republic of Macedonia. What was performed today is in accordance with the mission of the Army to protect the territorial integrity and with the participation in some peacekeeping operations, the Chief of General Staff of the Army Koteski said.

He positively assessed the activities of the members of the Special Operations Regiment and the Air Brigade, which, according to him, confirms the motto "Always first and everywhere ready".

"The specificity of this exercise stems from the need for good coordination in the preparation, organization and execution of such an exercise. The exercise included Army's ground, air and lake forces. With this exercise, we wanted to demonstrate the coordination between the Army and the Ministry of Interior in case of infiltration of terrorist groups on the territory, i.e. certain combat actions," explained General Koteski.

These operations, as assessed by Brigadier General Vasko Gjurchinovski, Commander of the Special Operations Regiment, are of a very high risk and require extra training and preparation to respond adequately.

"Today, we have demonstrated overall competence and combined capacity to respond to any threat with the support and collaboration of the Army's air and land forces, as well as the diving units in rescuing a drowning person," said Brigadier General Gjurchinovski.

The purpose of the methodical-demonstrative tactical exercise "Neutralizing a Hostile Vessel" was to check the readiness of the Special Operations Regiment and the Air Brigade for conducting combined land, water and air operations.