Last Friday, the Ministry of Defence was the venue to the Central Europe Chiefs of Defence Conference, who came together with Command Senior Enlisted Leaders and National Guard Adjutant Generals. Co-hosted by the Chief of General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces for the first time in the Czech Republic, the conference was contrarily the last one for the other co-host, Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Curtis M. Scaparrotti, as his tenure comes to an end.
General Scaparrotti congratulated General Opata on recently celebrating the 20th anniversary with NATO and noted the Czech Republic was, along with Poland and Hungary, the first former Eastern Bloc country to join NATO, and they have been strong members and leaders within the Alliance since that time.
A staunch NATO Ally
“The United States and NATO are fortunate to have committed and capable allies like the Czech Republic. As Allies we must continue to work together to ensure we remain ready to face current and emerging threats,” Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Curtis M. Scaparrotti said in a press conference.
SACEUR further noted the Czech Republic and U.S. were strong security partners, both in NATO and bilaterally and their militaries cooperate daily to combat common challenges on European and international scale.
Shoulder-to-shoulder on operations
“The United States and the Czech Republic are stronger together through our joint service in operations, combined exercises, through our shared education programs, and through our military exchanges,“ General Scaparrotti elaborated. The U.S. has partnered with the Czech Republic Armed Forces since 1993 with the establishment of the U.S. National Guard’s State Partnership Program between the Czech Republic and the National Guards from the states of Texas and Nebraska. Their partnership, now 25 years strong, was further strengthened with the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO in 1999.
The Chief of General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces General Aleš Opata stressed that the defence alliance with the United States of America has always been essential. “I would like to express our gratitude for the assistance we received from our U.S. allies during the preparation for the accession and the process of integration into NATO,“ General Opata said the Czech Armed Forces has served shoulder-to-shoulder with the U.S. military on NATO operations for many years, which only testifies to the success of the integration process.
After twenty years the Czech Republic has been in NATO, it is fair to conclude we are among the safest countries in the world as we are an integral part of the strongest defense alliance the world has ever seen,” General Opata underscored. In the conference, senior officials of Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia concurred it was essential to continue to develop cooperation in a variety of domains.
Command Senior Enlisted Leaders met too
The conference also served as a venue for the Command Senior Enlisted Leaders to share experience. It is the NCO corps who bear the brunt of responsibility for training service personnel as well as on performing missions on operations.
On the day preceding the conference, 28 March 2019, General Scaparotti had a call with Defence Minister Lubomír Metnar. “In the meeting with the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, we discussed the security situation and current threats. General Scaparotti is about to complete his three-year mission in Europe, and I thank him very much for everything he has done for NATO and European security,“ Minister Metnar commented.
Tisková konference
Autor: Jan Kouba
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