In addition to giving the countries a cost-effective means of contributing to multinational operations or responding to crises, this cooperation will further contribute to building trust, confidence and mutual cooperation among the armed forces in the region.
“The support we will provide as an Agency is a true win-win situation. We lower the costs for South-Eastern Europe defence cooperation by providing solutions we have already developed and paid for within NATO, while most importantly, we gain instant interoperability with the South-Eastern Europe Brigade, which then could contribute to NATO missions and operations,” said Dr Velizar Shalamanov, NCI Agency representative for cooperation with nations. “This is a practical example of the Agency’s support for a regional approach to Smart Defence as well as an illustration of how the Agency can contribute to the Connected Forces Initiative.”
Benefiting from Alliance experience
The package will include two components:
- advanced communication and information-sharing tools necessary for 21st century multinational operations;
- support for modern, cost-effective computer-assisted multinational training.
“Our current slogan for the South-Eastern Europe Brigade is: one team, one mission,” said Dr Gianluigi Magri, Italian Deputy Minister of Defence, chairman of the SEDM-Coordination Council. “We now hope to move to: one team, many missions.”
The South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial is an initiative launched in 1996 to boost cooperation among the countries of South-Eastern Europe. The main goal is to intensify political-military cooperation and security in the region. The countries participating in the initiative are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia¹, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States, while Georgia and Moldova have the status of observers.
As part of the NATO Secretary General’s Smart Defence concept, the NCI Agency supports both Allies and partners with advanced technology solutions that have already been developed within the Alliance for use by both national and multinational initiatives.
For more information, please see the NCI Agency website.
1. Turkey recognizes the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name
