|
Addressing civil emergency planning issues
The further improvement of civil preparedness for possible terrorist
attacks with chemical, biological or radiological weapons against civilian
populations was the main topic of the semi-annual meeting of the Senior
Civil Emergency Planning Committee.
Heads of the national civil emergency planning organisations of NATO
and Partner countries met at NATO HQ on 6-7 November and held meetings
with the 27 Partners, the seven invited countries, and with Russia in
the framework of the NATO-Russia Council.
The delegates reviewed progress made in the implementation of the Civil
Emergency Planning Action Plan and discussed the way ahead for several
important projects. These include an inventory of national capabilities;
non-binding guidelines and minimum standards for planning, training,
procedures, and equipment; critical infrastructure protection; and a
framework border-crossing agreement for civilian relief units. The committee
furthermore reviewed lessons learned from the Euro-Atlantic Disaster
Response Coordination Centre’s support to Turkey in March-April
2003 and from its recent exercises in Uzbekistan (‘Ferghana 2003’)
and Romania (‘Dacia 2003’). Several other important issues,
such as civil support to non-Article 5 crisis response operations and
military support to civil consequence management were also discussed.
|
