SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) met with Major Jon Eisberg of the Maryland National Guard in Sarajevo today and expressed support for expanding the partnership between Maryland and Bosnia to include health, educational cooperation as well.
Through the Maryland National Guard’s State Partnership Program, the Maryland Guard has conducted about 100 military training seminars for Bosnian troops since the partnership began in 2003. Two to three Maryland National Guardsmen come to Bosnia to lead each seminar.
“The success of this military partnership is proof positive of Maryland’s constructive leadership on the international stage. The partnership between our state and the Bosnian military should serve as a role model for others, and the program’s success shows us we should expand similar partnerships to cooperate in the fields of medicine and education, bringing together the first rate institutions of Maryland with counterparts here in Sarajevo,” said Senator Cardin, Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission).
Senator Cardin is in Bosnia this weekend leading a 13-Member Congressional delegation, which includes stops in Lithuania, for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and Belarus.
On Sunday Senator Cardin will travel to Corfu for an informal meeting on security matters among the 56 countries of the OSCE region.
Major Eisberg is serving his third year at the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo as the Bilateral Affairs Officer for the Maryland State Partnership Program.
Members of the Bosnian military recently visited Fort A.P. Hill for a military police training exercise. The partnership program is working to arrange another exchange this fall that could include discussions of military oversight.
