21 June 2006

Seminar in Stavanger focuses on transformation News 22 June 2006 - ACT NATO is transforming for the future," states General Smith US Air Force General Lance L. Smith, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), hosted a press conference in Stavanger, Norway, on 21 June, following this year’s SACT Seminar. The one-and-a-half day seminar devoted to “Delivering Transformation”, brought together NATO’s senior leadership to guide transformational thinking. Also in attendance were Norwegian Minister of Defence Anne-Grete Strom-Erichsen and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. During the press conference, General Smith highlighted the importance of the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) and the Joint Force Training Centre in NATO’s transformation. “[I]t is here at the JWC that we train Iraqi key leaders,” he observed. The NATO Secretary General remarked that NATO has already transformed itself as the Alliance continues to prepare for the future. “It would be unthinkable, even three years ago, that the aircraft assigned to NATO would fly the forces of the African Union in the horror-theatre that is called Darfur,” he noted. “…NATO’s credibility is linked, to a large extent, with how successful we are in these missions. We need the right people who, at the same time, need the right training.”