ASDE Memorandum signed on NAC margins in Brussels
As announced, on the margins of the NAC Defence Ministers meeting in Bruxelles, the representatives of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia (Assistant Minister of Defence for Defence Policy, Zoran Drča), the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro (Acting Military Representative to NATO, Col. Vladislav Vlahović) and of SHAPE (Chief of Staff, Gen. Werner Freers) signed the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Montenegro’s joining the NATO’s Air Situation Data Exchange (ASDE) Programme.
The objective of the ASDE is to prepare the aspirant countries to connect into the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINADS), through the exchange of unclassified data on the situation in the air space filtered by a NATO nation within the specified geographical area between NATO and the Partner country.
Pursuant to the Decision of the North Atlantic Council of 2011, the Republic of Croatia has been designated as the ASDE Sponsor Country for the countries in its neighbourhood – Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Within a wider perspective, the conclusion of the trilateral agreement constitutes a segment of the efforts invested by the Republic of Croatia into building of the necessary joint regional surveillance and air defence capabilities, and the full inclusion of Montenegro in the ASDE programme is an additional contribution to the overarching process of its Euro-Atlantic integration.