A Great Opportunity to Strengthen the Alliance
By LTC Franz Feyerer, AUT-A, Staff Officer for Outreach, 07 Dec 22
After a break of three years due to Covid, the Partnership Training and Education Centres (PTEC) community met again for the first time on November 15th and 16th for the traditional Marketplace at NATO HQ in Brussels.
The event was opened by NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană, who thanked the PTECs for their "fantastic work for the Alliance" and highlighted their role as security providers through education and training. He also stressed that the unique expertise that PTECs bring is a valuable asset that NATO will continue to leverage. The leadership of this community is shared between Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and the NATO School Oberammergau (NSO); the CMDT of the NSO is also the co-chair of the PTEC community.
Colonel Jay Smith, CMDT of the NSO, emphasized the special geographical scope and topical variety of the PTECs, which strengthen and complement perspectives and approaches. To recognize the outstanding achievements of PTEC officers, NCOs and civilians, he announced the introduction of annual awards.
PTEC is a community of currently 34 NATO-accredited E&T centres, which are spread across the globe in 12 NATO member states and 15 partner countries. These centres complement NATO's E&T portfolio or provide NATO with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).
Of the 34 PTECs, geographically spread from Colombia in the west to Mongolia in the east, 27 PTECs took the opportunity to participate this year.
The NSO celebrates its 70th Anniversary in 2023 and very much looks forward to further expanding the cooperation and collaboration with the PTEC community in the future.