Pocius join NATO talks

  • 2012-05-02
  • From wire reports

GROUNDWORK: CHOD Arvydas Pocius in Brussels discussing Baltic region security.

VILNIUS - From April 14 to 26, the Chief of Defense of Lithuania, Lt. Gen. Arvydas Pocius, participated in the EU and NATO military Committees’ meetings in Brussels, Belgium, reports ELTA. On April 25 and 26 NATO and NATO partner states’ CHODs met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a NATO Military Committee session and discussed NATO future priorities and challenges.

At the meeting, perspectives of the NATO operations underway, including NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, were addressed. The NATO Strategic Plan in Afghanistan was discussed in the presence of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partners, ISAF Commander Gen. John R. Allen, via teleconference, presenting relevant points of the operation. NATO CHODs considerably focused, too, on other military operations of the Alliance in Afghanistan, Kosovo, NATO counter-piracy and counter-terrorism operations and discussed the experience from the NATO operation in Libya.

The Lithuanian Chief of Defense also participated in the NATO-Russia and NATO-Ukraine meetings, where the discussion focused on bilateral defense relations with the allies and in the Baltic region.
Points discussed, proposals and guidelines prepared during the two-day meeting were to be sent to the North Atlantic Council and to be used at the Chicago Summit due on May 20 and 21.

At the session of the EU Military Committee on April 24 a significant focus was paid to the strategic defense priorities of the EU, the possibility of pooling and sharing resources among the member countries, and perspectives of conflict prevention. CHODs of the EU countries also addressed military operations of the EU in the Western Balkans and Africa.
The NATO Military Committee is the highest NATO command structure, subordinate to the North Atlantic Council, Defense Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning Group. The agency adopts military strategic decisions and shapes military advice to the North Atlantic Council, which then makes corresponding political decisions. The day-to-day work at the Military Committee is done during sessions of military representatives delegated by participating countries.

The EU Military Committee is the highest military institution of the European Union, including Chiefs of Defense of the EU countries. The Committee has been conducting its activities since 2001, and is in charge of directing actions of the EU countries, renders advice to the EU Political and Security Committee, and shapes the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy.