Official visit of the Chief of Defence to Slovakia

• Admiral General Teodoro Esteban López Calderón met with the Spanish troops deployed in NATO's multinational exercise 'Strong Cohesion' 23-II.

Working trip of the Chief of Defence to Slovakia. There, he was received by his Slovakian colleague, General Daniel Zmeko, with whom he held a meeting to discuss matters of bilateral interest.

Thereafter, CHOD headed to the Military Training Area in Lešť, where he was received by General Alfonso Pardo de Santayana Galbis, head of the Galicia VII Brigade (BRILAT). At this location, he was updated on the development of the activities being carried out by the Spanish contingent deployed in this Slovakian locality during its involvement in NATO's multinational exercise 'Strong Cohesion 23-II'.

Admiral General López Calderón was flanked by various civilian and military authorities, such as the Slovakian Minister of Defence, Robert Kaliňák, the Spanish Ambassador to Slovakia, Lorea Arribalzaga Ceballos, Lieutenant General Fernando García González-Valerio, the Chief of the Joint  Defence Staff of the Spanish Army, the Lieutenant General Carlos Melero Claudio, Chief of the Land Force, and other authorities from the Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) and NATO Land Component Headquarters (NATO LANDCOM HQ) in Turkey.

During the visit, various issues were discussed with the various authorities present, including the commitment of the Spanish Armed Forces to NATO's Forward Land Forces (FLF) concept, Spain's ability to lead multinational operational organisations in accordance with NATO's new force model, the logistical challenge of the strategic projection of assets from national territory to Slovakia and the ability to be interoperable by establishing a command and control system that guarantees the integration of all units and mutual knowledge among all units.

CHOD and the civilian and military authorities accompanying him visited the facilities of the Lešť manoeuvre field, where they were able to witness the performance of a tactical exercise that demonstrated different capabilities, in which around 700 military personnel from different units and countries took part. These included units from the Spanish contingent as well as units from the NATO Multinational Battlegroup currently deployed in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany.