Article courtesy of JFC Naples Military Partnership Branch
MANAMA, Bahrain — An Expert Staff Meeting with Bahrain took place in Manama on Monday.
Brig. Gen. Reinhard Kloss, Acting Chief of Staff J9, led a NATO delegation that met with Maj. Gen. Abdulla Hassan Al-Noaimi, the Bahrain Defense Forces’ Inspector General. Military Partnership representatives from Joint Force Command Naples, SHAPE, MARCOM and LANDCOM provided multiple presentations on NATO military structures and its military cooperation programs available to Bahrain over the next two years.
The aim of the Expert Staff Meeting was to showcase the various partnership opportunities available, discuss past and present military cooperation activities and to prepare future activities in accordance with the Bahraini Defense Forces requests and ambition. All military cooperation events discussed during the meeting evolve from an Individual Partnership Cooperation Program that exists between NATO and Bahrain. Additionally, Kloss had the opportunity to meet with Field Marshall Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, the Bahrain Defense Forces’ Commander in Chief. Al Khalifa expressed his gratitude to NATO for their visit and looked forward to a stronger partnership between the NATO and the Bahraini Defense Forces.
A successful meeting resulted with insightful discussions involving both parties. Not only did the NATO team come away with a better understanding of what types of training Bahraini Defense Forces desired, but Bahraini leadership was provided an in-depth look at what training was available to their forces. Al-Noaimi concluded the meeting by stating how important it is for Bahrain to strengthen its NATO relationship and his hope to see much more military partnership activity in the future.
Bahrain is an active NATO partner country and has been a member of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) Framework since 2005. It currently participates in a number of NATO initiatives including the NATO Defense College, Senior Executive NATO courses, NATO Exercises and other Key Leader Engagements.