News Release - Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff attends NATO Military Committee meetings

NR–13.164 - May 17, 2013

OTTAWA – The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, joined his North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) counterparts this past week for the 169th meeting of the NATO Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting provided the Chiefs of Defence of NATO and its Partners with an opportunity to review and discuss updates on a number of issues relevant to the Alliance.

“The tremendous discussion facilitated by these regular gatherings of NATO's Military Committee is extremely important to help ensure we provide good military advice to the North Atlantic Council,” said General Lawson. “I found the NATO Transformation and regional security updates to be of particular interest. As the Alliance continues down the path of modernization and transformation, Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces will, I'm sure, continue to have an important role to play in both the process and the end result.”

The two-day conference focused on NATO Transformation and the progress made in its Connected Forces Initiative and Smart Defence projects. Discussion also covered NATO’s current major operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as the planning for NATO post the 2014 mission in Afghanistan. Additionally, the Chiefs of Defence reviewed the progress of its military-to-military cooperation with the Alliance’s special Partners (Georgia, Russia and the Ukraine), and received updates on various regional security issues.

The NATO Military Committee plays a critical role in building on the lessons learned from the Alliance’s missions, and helps ensure Allied militaries are interoperable, modern, agile and capable of responding whenever the Alliance may need to call upon them.

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For more information about the Office of the Chief of the Defence Staff, please visit his website at: www.forces.gc.ca/site/ocds-bcemd/index-eng.asp

For more information about Canada’s relationship with NATO, please consult the following backgrounder: http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/news-nouvelles/news-nouvelles-eng.asp?id=4162