Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

NATO days are being held for Azerbaijani servicemen in Baku. The main goal is to provide broad information about NATO to the teachers, commanders, cadets and students of the military educational institutions of Azerbaijani armed forces.

As part of the event, the structure of NATO, history of its establishment, objectives, policies, strategies and NATO reforms, partnerships, crisis response and peacekeeping operations, roundtable discussions are to be presented.

A group of specialists of the NATO Allied Command Transformation and the NATO supreme command of the allied armed forces in Europe is taking part. NATO Military Cooperation Division (MCD)Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Ion Dumitrascu heads the delegation, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry told Trend news agency.

Also, NATO and US experts are due to arrive in Baku on November 5 to assist in the development of certain areas of the military education system of the Azerbaijani armed forces, the ministry said.

Bilateral meetings will be held during the visit, which will last until November 9. The experts will also visit some entities of the Defense Ministry.

NATO and Azerbaijan actively cooperate on democratic, institutional and defense reforms, and have developed practical cooperation in many other areas such as security, defense and security system, civil emergency planning, science and environment and public information spheres.

Azerbaijan is seeking to achieve Euro-Atlantic standards and to draw closer to Euro-Atlantic institutions. Consequently, support to security sector reform and democratic institution building are key elements of NATO-Azerbaijan cooperation.

Another important area of cooperation is the country's support for NATO-led operations. Azerbaijan currently contributes troops to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. In the past, it also actively supported the operation in Kosovo.

Key areas of cooperation include good governance and democratic control of the defense and security sector, defense planning and budgeting and the reorganization of the armed forces structure using NATO standards. Beyond supporting reform, another key objective of NATO's cooperation with Azerbaijan is to develop the ability of the country's forces to work together with forces from NATO countries.

Azerbaijan also cooperates with NATO and partner countries in a wide range of other areas through the Partnership for Peace (PfP), the Planning and Review Process (PARP) and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC).

NATO-Azerbaijan relations date back to 1992, when Azerbaijan joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (renamed the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 1997). Cooperation has steadily increased since Azerbaijan joined the Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and its participation in the PfP Planning and Review Process since 1997. The focus on supporting Azerbaijan's domestic reform process has intensified since the development of Azerbaijan's Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) with NATO in 2005.