NATO Defence Ministerial
Croatian Defence Minister Ante Kotromanović is attending the two-day Defence Ministerial opened today 21 February 2013 at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. On the agenda of the first day of the Ministerial was the Connected Forces Initiative (the CFI), aimed at maintaining force interoperability in the view of diminishing presence of the Allies and partners in the operations and an increased role of the NATO Response Force.
The Ministers also discussed the implementation and development of the Defence Package agreed on at the Chicago Summit. NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen presented the proposals for new options of shared funding in the interest of maintaining interoperability, upgrading of collective deployability, promotion of multinational co-operation and development of defence capabilities.
The SACT and the SACEUR are to brief the ministers on key shortfalls and needs for investing into defence capabilities as well as on the options to offset the shortfalls through the projects within the Smart Defence Initiative.
On the margins of the Ministerial the Letter of Intent is to be signed whereby the Republic of Croatia is to confirm participation in the Smart Defence Czech-led Multinational Aviation Training Centre project along with the U. S. and the Slovakian partners. The project has been launched to ensure standardised air training, increased interoperability and the effectiveness of the training activities through multi-national co-operation. Croatia’s participation in the Multi-national Aviation Training Centre is a continuation of the successful co-operation with the Czech Republic and Hungary in joint pre-deployment training of pilots deployed to Afghanistan within the Air Advisory Teams.
The working dinner will be the occasion to discuss the future of the Alliance with regard to defence funding and fair burden sharing, especially in view of the new Capability Targets distribution. The main idea is to achieve common understanding and common level of ambition (LOA) regarding the mid-term (5-10 years) future of the Alliance after the year 2014.
The second day the ministers are to meet in the NATO-Ukraine Commission format, to discuss the mid-term priorities of the NATO-Ukraine co-operation in the domain of defence reforms.
The Ministerial is to conclude with the meeting with non-NATO ISAF contributors on the post-2014 presence of the Alliance in Afghanistan, with the focus on re-deployment of forces and equipment and funding suport for the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
Along with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Ministerial is attended by the Afghan Defence Minister, Mr. Bismillah Khan Muhammadi and the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General, Jan Kubis . The new ISAF Commander, U. S. General Joseph Dunford, will report on the current situation in the field and on the progress achieved by the Afghan National Security Forces in taking over the responsibility for security of Afghanistan.