[daniel1212]

Pertinent excerpts:

08:09 GMT, April 3, 2012 “’Terrorists hijack a passenger cruise ship in international waters and threaten to sink it if their demands are not met within 48 hours. The hostages aboard include citizens of a number of NATO-Russia Council (NRC) countries.” This was the fictitious scenario for a counter-terrorism tabletop exercise organized under the NRC, at NATO Headquarters on 26 and 27 March 2012.

According to the scenario, the NRC discussed their shared concerns about the situation and tasked experts to explore how the Council could work together to tackle it.

Lieutenant-General Evgeny Potapov, Deputy Head of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee of the Russian Federation, headed up the team of twelve that came from Moscow to participate in the exercise. “For us it is very interesting to familiarize ourselves, in real time, in a specific operational situation, with the methods our partners use in their countries and to share our experience with them and perhaps develop the mechanisms which will enable us to deal effectively with current terrorist threats at sea,” he explains.

Over 70 civilian and military personnel from NRC nations took part in the exercise. A broad range of expertise was represented, including experts from ministries of defence, foreign affairs and transport, as well as military personnel from a number of NRC nations. Several nations also provided experts from national law enforcement bodies.

The exercise contributed to building awareness of counter-terrorism roles and procedures within NRC nations, helping to identify challenges and sharing best practices. It also promoted understanding of organizational structures involved in the response to terrorism, which could facilitate interagency cooperation among NRC nations in the case of a possible real-life situation. http://www.defpro.com/news/details/34081/?SID=f2dbc664bd89fb5ce3847f99a4376828

Air Force Bows to Atheist Complaints: Will Remove Bible Requirement for On-Base Lodging http://www.theblaze.com/stories/air-force-bows-to-atheist-complaints-will-remove-bible-requirement-for-on-base-lodging/

[Eagle of Liberty]

Wow. First I ever heard of NRC. Then I went and found this:

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50090.htm

NATO’s new Strategic Concept, approved at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010, stresses the importance to the Allies of developing “a true strategic partnership between NATO and Russia” and their determination to “enhance political consultation and practical cooperation with Russia in areas of shared interests” and to “use the full potential of the NRC for dialogue and joint action”.

Lisbon also hosted the third summit in the history of the NRC. The 29 NRC leaders pledged to “work towards achieving a true strategic and modernized partnership based on the priciples of reciprocal confidence, transparency, and predicatability, with the aim of contributing to the creation of a common space of peace, security and stability.”

At Lisbon, NRC leaders endorsed a Joint Review of 21st Century Common Security Challenges, which include Afghanistan (including counter-narcotics), terrorism (including the vulnerability of critical infrastructure), piracy, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, as well as natural and man-made disasters. Practical cooperation is being developed in each area. NRC leaders agreed to resume cooperation in the area of theatre missile defence as well as to develop a comprehensive joint analysis of the future framework for broader missile defence cooperation. They also agreed on a number of initiatives to assist in the stabilization of Afghanistan and the wider region.

Since Lisbon, progress has been made in a number of important areas:

- On issues related to Afghanistan, a project to help the Afghan Armed Forces to operate their helicopter fleet was launched in 2011 and the first training of Afghan maintenance began in Novosibirsk in April 2012; the ongoing project to train Afghan and Central Asian counter-narcotics personnel increased the number of trainings and trainees and in April 2012 reached the landmark of 2000 trainees since the Project’s beginning ; and work on further developing multi-modal reverse arrangements for transit of the non-lethal cargo for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is well advanced

- In the area of combating terrorism, the Cooperative Airspace Initiative, after a successful June 2011 live exercise entitled “Vigilant Skies 2011”, reached its operational readiness at the end of 2011 and a table top exercise on counter-terrorism took place in March 2012

- Work is underway to strengthen cooperation on counter-piracy in particular by improving communication channels during naval operations

- A computer-assisted exercise on theatre missile defence took place in March 2012.

NRC nations agree that the NRC is a valuable instrument for building practical cooperation and for political dialogue on all issues – where they agree and disagree. While political differences remain on some high-level issues – such as Russia’s suspended implementation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Libya and issues related to Georgia – the driving force behind the NRC’s pragmatic spirit of cooperation is the realization that NATO and Russia share strategic priorities and face common challenges.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has expressed his desire to see progress in cooperation on three tracks, which he deems essential to build trust between the Allies and Russia: missile defence, conventional arms control, and reducing the number of short-range nuclear weapons in Europe.