General Knud Bartels starts as Chairman of the NATO Military Committee
Brussels, 02 January - Today, Danish General Knud Bartels assumed his position as Chairman of NATO 's Military Committee, for which he was elected by NATO’s 28 Chiefs of Defence on 17 September 2011. General Bartels succeeds the Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola.
The Chairman of the Military Committee is the principal military advisor to the Secretary General, and the conduit through which consensus-based advice from NATO’s Chiefs of Defence is presented to the political body of NATO, the North Atlantic Council.
The Chairman of the Military Committee is elected for a 3 year period. Since 1963, when the position was permanently installed, the chairmanship has been held by 16 officers from the following NATO member nations : Germany (five times), the United Kingdom (three times), Canada , Italy and Norway (two times each ), Belgium and the Netherlands (once each).