Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac voiced belief that it is good that Serbia is starting to talk about joining NATO, since that will help its citizens with the transition from an emotional bond that the country has from the past to rational discussions focused on the country's future, in accordance with the Constitution and official state policy.

"Serbia is definitely going to collaborate with NATO even without being its member. The form of this collaboration will be ultimately decided by Serbian citizens," Sutanovac said for CorD magazine.

"A politician who speaks the truth has seldom been popular in Serbia. But it is not a politician's job to be popular, but to work in the best interests of his country and its citizens," the defense minister pointed out.

"Under the present circumstances, that means working towards Serbia's becoming an EU member as soon as possible" he stressed, and said that EU candidate status should help Serbia "to position itself with respect to NATO while bearing in mind the national, economic, political and security aspects."

"In order to do that, we need to do a rational analysis on which we are going to base our future decisions," Sutanovac believes. Sutanovac stated that "relations between Serbia and NATO are also changing," and that "things that were inconceivable only a decade ago have become reality today."

"KFOR and the Serbian Army, the two warring sides in the past, have become partners, gradually building trust in the field. Today, their collaboration is one of the safety pillars in the region," he added.

Sutanovac reminded that Serbia participates in NATO's Partnership for Peace program and would like to be granted an advanced partner status. Serbia will have its mission in NATO this year, he said, adding that it has "adopted the second Individual Partnership Programme (IPP) for 2010" and that it is planning "to continue working with NATO on reforming the defense system."

The minister said that "Serbia and NATO are no longer enemies, but partners who seek to find the best modalities of cooperation," stressing that "the most important change in relations between Serbia and NATO is a change of conscience and the way we look at each other."

"The fact remains that certain NATO structures still have a 'frozen image' of Serbia, viewing it as Milosevic's Serbia from the 1990's, as the culprit behind every single problem in the region," he pointed out. On the other hand, "some people in Serbia think of NATO as being anti-Serb for bombing the country in 1999 and taking away Kosovo and Metohija."

"Unfortunately, this is a case of covering up for the inevitability and incompetence of politicians that haven't accomplished notable results," Sutanovac claims.

"Although NATO air raids were a really traumatic event for Serbia that could not and should not be forgotten, this country is quite capable of handling its own responsibility in this case and judging those politicians who, in the name of Serbia and patriotic duty, were only actually concerned with their own well-being," said Sutanovac.