Turkish Colonel Tayfun Çağan, one of EUFOR’s Deputy Chiefs of Staff, who chaired the conference, stated “Capacity Building and Training” aiming at the continuous evolution of the Armed Forces of BiH is one of EUFOR’s main efforts. Remarkable progress has been made in 2016 so far. Just to mention one example, 10 new staff of the AFBiH have been trained successfully on the ability to dismantle unsafe ammunition. An additional 10 instructors have finished their training and can now pass on that knowledge, which contributes to the safety of the population in helping to reduce the number of surplus ammunition and weapons across the country. I am optimistic that our common training projects will ensure further progress in 2017.”
The ‘Capacity Building & Training’ Assessment Conference was held at the historic Army Hall in Sarajevo
Colonel Nedžad ŠIŠIĆ, Head of the Logistics Planning Section within the Support Command of the AFBiH said, “The focus of cooperation between AFBIH and EUFOR will be the improvement of our capabilities, actually to bring our system of training up to a higher level, thus to contribute to acceleration of our process of integration to NATO, that is to be evaluated by NATO, and EUFOR supports that wholeheartedly.
When it comes to general cooperation so far, and I hope that it will continue in the future, this cooperation was of really high quality, and all we have requested for have been provided by EUFOR, in many cases even more then we had asked for.”
As a main effort of the EU led operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EUFOR Capacity Building and Training Programme (CBTP) provides the BiH authorities with military expertise and technical support. This is done in close coordination with NATO by training, mentoring, monitoring and advising the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AF BiH) throughout their command structure.
Chairing the conference: NATO Advisor Colonel Mathna, EUFOR Dep Chief of Staff Colonel Çağan and Colonel Rašeta from the Armed Forces of BiH (from l-r)
The tasks are executed through Embedded Advisory Teams (EATs), Mobile Training Teams (MTTs) and Mentoring and Monitoring Teams (MMTs). To achieve the desired end state, all the members of the Capacity Building Training Division of EUFOR are putting a lot of effort and determination into the planning and coordination of all the different activities and trainings of a wide range of military capabilities. The Assessment Conference, which is held every November, has the aim to assess the efforts made during the year and to coordinate the upcoming activities of the next year.
EUFOR Operation Althea is currently made up of soldiers from 15 EU member states and 5 partner nations. Its primary roles are to provide capacity building and training support to the Armed Forces of BiH, to gain advanced capabilities. This in turn enabling AFBiH to achieve international standards required for contribution to Peace Support Operations and their further approach towards European and North Atlantic integration.