Izmir, Turkey - From June 21st to 22nd,
Allied Land Command’s Chief of Staff Major General Erhan Uzun hosted his
counterparts from NATO Rapid Deployable Corps (Spain, Greece, Italy, and
Turkey), Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, Rapid Reaction Corps France,
Multinational Corps Northeast, 1st German Netherland Corps,
Eurocorps, and Multinational Division Southeast to the 6th Annual Chiefs
of Staff Conference in Izmir, Turkey. Every year this conference brings
together Chiefs of Staff to allow a platform for discussing topics of common
interest, share ideas on best practices, and to address future challenges that
may arise for LANDCOM and its partners. Not inherently a decision making body,
the COS Conference dedicates itself to openly discussing key issues that NATO
faces today.
Not only does the COS Conference
address the handling of new concepts and structures within NATO, but it also
allows each member to identify or discuss a path to resolve new and evolving
challenges for NATO. Threats of regional instability, terrorism, violent
extremism, weapons of mass destruction, cyber-attacks, hybrid threats, and many
more often arise in these discussions. The Alliance needs to be ready for these
upcoming challenges and the COS Conference takes us one step closer to
achieving the objectives of collective security. This year the conference
members were able to discuss topics such as the NATO Command Structure
Adaptation, Comprehensive All-Domain Operations Capstone Concept, NEPR and SAGE
2019, and NATO Strategic Direction South.