LAGO PATRIA, Italy - More than 250 participants from NATO’s Command structures attended the conference and notably by 21 NATO Nations and 34 Partner Nations.
The conference is the single most important annual event for planning military cooperation activities with partner nations each year.
JFCNP J9 officers served a critical role in the conference, leading two days of bi-lateral engagements with 13 partner countries.
The newly established NATO country teams composed of IS/PASP, IMS, LANDCOM, AIRCOM, MARCOM, NSO and ACT took a ONE NATO approach and successfully negotiating 80% of the military cooperation activities for 2020.
One of the significant results of the conference was the change in the context of training requests from partners.
Cyber Defence, Information Technology, Logistics, Standardization and Public Affairs are becoming more popular than in the past.
Additionally, the partners would like to find more opportunities to participate in NATO Exercises.
With 25 years since the inception of the Partnership for Peace and Mediterranean Dialogue Programme, and 15 years since Istanbul Cooperative Initiative, partnerships continue to be pivotal to NATOs mission.
The key note speaker, LT Gen Jan Broeks, DGIMS, stressed, "NATO does not have the luxury of choosing between collective defense and crisis management. Partners are, and will remain essential to NATO.”
Story by JFC Naples Public Affairs Office