North American Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
September 5, 2014
Engaging NATO’s Future Leaders in Wales
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), General Jean-Paul Paloméros gave a keynote speech at the 2014 Future Leaders Summit in Wales September 4. The theme was “Future NATO and Dynamic Transformation.”
Addressing an event that brings together current Alliance leaders, emerging leaders from NATO countries and experts in international security, SACT especially focused collective defence, interoperability, cooperation with partner nations and the future of NATO.
Advocating for maintaining a formidable bond with partner nations, General Paloméros expressed his desire to ensure NATO continues to work closely with nations who stand with the Alliance, when facing future and current security challenges.
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He stressed the importance of viewing those challenges from a global perspective, saying every nation could play a role in preparing for current and emerging threats.
“What the Ukraine crisis showed us is that we need to organise this global approach,” said General Paloméros. “That could be the next step in the role of NATO and the partnership of these nations; how we make sure everyone can play a role within this environment and how we make sure there is a global strategy to approach the major problems of this century.”
SACT also talked about his Command’s role in preparing NATO for the future. Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is responsible for providing a transformative training plan to enable its military force the flexibility to respond to any crisis in a short time.
“We have focused very much in the last two years on preparing our forces…,” he said. “We have been able to log more than 50 exercises – national exercises with NATO exercises – since June 2014. Next year, we are counting more than 200 exercises with NATO and the Nations together. This is a great achievement if you look at the situation as it was five years ago.”
General Paloméros told the audience military strength alone could not solve all of NATO’s problems. He concluded by praising the leaders’ thoughtful contributions saying, “our people are our best assets. The future starts now. It starts with you and you are an essential part of the future.”
The Future Leaders Summit, hosted by the Atlantic Council alongside the 2014 NATO Summit, serves as a major public diplomacy event to focus global attention on NATO, the United Kingdom and Wales, and also to provide a high-profile venue for current and aspiring Alliance leaders to engage one another and the public.
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