NATO military delegation at staff talks with partner, Kingdom of Bahrain
From 19 to 23 June 2023, a military delegation from NATO’s Cooperative Security Division (CS), led by its Director, Lieutenant General Francesco Diella, travelled to Manama to meet with senior military representatives from the Kingdom of Bahrain. They discussed the way ahead towards enhanced military cooperation and a stronger partnership between NATO and Bahrain.
On the first day of the visit, the NATO representatives sat with the Minister of Defence, H.E. Hassan Ali-Noaimi, the Director for Military Training, the Director for Military Cooperation, and the Chief of Staff for Operations. Their discussions centred on main cooperation work strands and future participation in training and exercises.
Addressing the Bahraini delegation, Lieutenant General Diella illustrated the importance of the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme (ITPP) within the framework of the NATO Strategic Concept, with an emphasis on the added value of the Operational Capabilities Concept Evaluation and Feedback (OCC E&F) Programme from an interoperability perspective. This Programme is used to develop and train partner land, maritime, air or Special Operations Forces that seek to meet NATO standards. A rigorous process that can often take a few years, but it ensures that partner forces are ready to work with Allied forces once deployed.
In a subsequent meeting with the Director of the Military Intelligence, Colonel Ali Khalifa Al Khalifa and the National Security Advisor, H.E. Lieutenant General Shaikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the NATO delegation had the opportunity to discuss more in depth topics pertaining to the security situation in the Gulf Area, climate change and future areas of cooperation between NATO and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
On the second day of the visit, the NATO representatives engaged with the Director of the Military Cooperation. The discussion provided greater insights into NATO’s online management tool and education platform for partner nations (ePRIME) as well as the possibility of broadening Bahrain’s participation in NATO e-learning courses in the future.
The 2-day programme concluded with a meeting with H.E. Ambassador Roderick Drummond, Head of the United Kingdom Embassy in Manama and the NATO Contact Point Embassy (CPE) for Bahrain. The event, also attended by diplomatic and military representatives of many NATO Allies in the country, represented an opportunity for Lieutenant General Diella to provide a comprehensive overview of NATO’s ongoing cooperation with Bahrain