Skopje, 15 June 2022 (MIA) – Defence Minister Slavjanka Petrovska met on Wednesday at NATO HQ in Brussels with the NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Camille Grand and discussed the capacity building and networking of the pilot training center with other pilot training facilities in Europe in the framework of the NATO Flight Training in Europe (NFTE) initiative. “North Macedonia is interested in continuing to develop the pilot training center, which has unique facilities and which can make a serious contribution to the development of flight training in Europe,” Petrovska said. Minister Petrovska said that the center thus far achieved visible and significant results training 27 helicopter pilots for the needs of North Macedonia and Montenegro, and several hundred pilots from North Macedonia, Croatia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nigeria and Cameroon were trained at modernized Mi-17 and Mi-24 helicopter simulators, the Ministry of Defence said in a press release. Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment Grand pointed out the great need for flight training in Europe and said that the pilot training center in North Macedonia has the capacity to be one of the pillars of flight training on the continent. “North Macedonia along with 10 other member states of the Alliance launched the Multinational Initiative to establish the NATO Flight Training Europe structure in 2021. This initiative will enable the establishment of a network of Pilot Training Centres that will meet the needs of several European allies’ pilot training, who themselves do not develop this type of capacity. This network will have an even greater interoperability between the allies, reduce the cost of pilot training and is a true example of the concept of sharing the burden between NATO member states,” reads the press release. Member states of this initiative include North Macedonia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Spain and Turkey. Defence Minister Petrovska, together with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and the NATO Defence Ministers, participated in a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels at which the support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine was reaffirmed and NATO's commitment to supporting Ukrainian citizens and the country in defense against unprovoked Russian aggression. Minister Petrovska also participated in the working dinner with partners from Finland, Georgia, Sweden, Ukraine and the European Union. Petrovska welcomed the applications of Sweden and Finland for NATO membership and pointed out the need for constant coordination with the European Union and the partners in strengthening the security of the Euro-Atlantic area. In Brussels, Minister Petrovska also met with her Romanian counterpart, Vasile Dincu, thanked him for Romanian support in fighting the wildfires in North Macedonia last summer, and said the country is committed to the continued development of bilateral defence cooperation.