BILATERAL TRAINING AND EXERCISES CONFERENCE 2024 WITH THE UNITED STATES

• The conference was attended by representatives of Headquarters, Commands and Units of the Spanish and United States Armed Forces

For two days, the Spanish Centre for Higher Defense Studies hosted the Bilateral Training and Exercise Conference with the United States of America 'BTEC 24', organized by the Force Development Division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff together with the Spanish-American Standing Committee.

The origins of this conference date back to 1952. Since then, its purpose has been to identify and coordinate proposals for bilateral activities to improve the interoperability and readiness of the Spanish and US armed forces.

In order to coordinate these bilateral training and exercise activities, the BTEC is organized into eight working groups with representatives from the headquarters and forces of both countries covering the physical theatres of operation along with other areas of common interest (land, maritime, air and space, special operations, military disaster relief, health, legal and cyber).

In 2024, the BTEC has brought together 100 representatives, 31 Spanish and 69 North American. 114 activities have been coordinated for 2025, 14 of which were newly created. The 118 activities agreed for this year and coordinated in BTEC-23 have also been reviewed.

Details of these activities will be included in the various training programmes. At the joint level, some of these exercises will be integrated into the Exercise Planning Directive which is issued on an annual basis.

The conference has once again served to strengthen the excellent bilateral relations between Spain and the United States of America.