On January 15-16 Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas attended the 180th session of the Military Committee at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. NATO leadership and other NATO allies' Chiefs of Defence addressed the Alliance's strategic and international security topics.
In the beginning of the meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg briefed Chiefs of Defence on the political context ahead of the NATO Defence Ministers' meeting in February, and on other strategic topics of the Alliance.
Then present and future strategic challenges of the Alliance and deterrence and defence stance were discussed under the lead of Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee. NATO's contingency planning and its compatibility with member states' national and EU defence plans was thoroughly discussed when addressing deterrence and defence. In a separate working session General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), updated the MC on the status of the NATO Military Strategy and the Readiness Initiative.
In the meeting on NATO's Resolute Support Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan its leadership provided an overview of the results and further prospects of the operation. Chief of Defence of Pakistan General Zubair Mahmood Hayat attended the event on guest's rights and presented to the MC security situation in his country and region and cooperation with NATO.
On the margins of the session on January 15 Lithuanian Chief of Defence met with his Polish counterpart Lt Gen Rajmund Andrzejczak to discuss bilateral and multilateral military cooperation and prospects of its enhancement.
On January 16 General André Lanata, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), delivered a statement on potential relation between strategic conceptual thinking and specific military capabilities of the Alliance. Later the Common Funded Capability Delivery and perspectives of its application were discussed.
In a working session on Georgia the country's Chief of Defence Maj Gen Vladimer Chachibaia told about the security situation in the country and projected implemented on the path towards NATO membership.
In the end of the conference security situation in the Western Balkans and potential NATO measures to ensure stability in the region will be addressed.
The Military Committee (MC) is NATO's highest structure of military command subordinate to the North Atlantic Council, Defence Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning Group. It takes strategic-level military decisions and forms military advice to the North Atlantic Council, the political decision-making body.
At the highest level the MC is comprised of NATO countries' Chiefs of Defence while daily activities are carried out by their military representatives. Lithuania's Military Representative to NATO is Brig Gen Modestas Petrauskas.
Chiefs of Defence sessions normally take place three times per year, two in Brussels and one - in one of the NATO states on a rotational basis.
Photos: courtesy of NATO
Spokesperson for the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Maj Mindaugas Neimontas
+370 5 278 5091, +370 682 25359, mindaugas.neimontas@mil.lt
