Poland: NATO Escalates Military Role On Belarus, Russia Borders

North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
April 19, 2013

SACT pointed out Poland’s strong commitment to Connected Forces Initiative

As the lead nation and the main contributor to the next live NATO exercise ‘Steadfast Jazz’ that will take place mostly on Polish soil in the fall of 2013 with 19 nations and 3,500 participants on one hand, and with the continuous support given to the JFTC in Bydgoszcz on the other, Poland is one of the most engaged nations in the implementation of the Connected Forces initiative – a priority for the SACT.

SACT, French Air Force General Jean-Paul Paloméros had this impression re-confirmed during his official visit to Poland and the following visit to the NATO-centre.

After a meeting with the Minister of Defence, Tomasz Siemonak in Warsaw, General Paloméros highlighted the necessity for NATO to emphasize joint, multinational exercises that would “allow to maintain the proper dynamics of development of joint interoperable forces in the years to come when the operational tempo will likely decrease”.

During other meetings in the capital with the Chief of Defence staff, Major General Mieczlaw Cienuch and other Polish military representatives, views on other key NATO topics like Smart Defence, partnerships and NATO-EU cooperation were shared.

Wednesday 17 April, general Paloméros visited JFTC for the first time. He was shown around by the centre’s Commander, Czech Army Major General Pavel Macko and had a chance to talk to several of the staff.

After his visit, Palomers declared: “JFTC is one of our poles of excellence for training – it has a key role in support of ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan] by high value training at the tactical level (training of the trainers) both for the NATO and partner forces. And it will continue to provide training support for the post 2014 era”

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During discussions at the centre, General Palomeros agreed on the continued importance of JFTC in conducting pre-deployment training for current operations and at the same time training for the NATO command and force structures and the NATO Response Force (NRF).

Upon conclusion of his visits, SACT expressed full satisfaction for the productive talks and said that he was looking forward to continue the fruitful cooperation between Poland and ACT.