The 2011 Strategic Military Partner Conference concluded today, June 15 in Belgrade, Serbia.

SMPC 2011 offered military leadership of both NATO and its partners the opportunity to share views and experiences on the evolving security environment and its challenges.

With the overarching theme of “Post Lisbon: Delivering Transformation”, attendees exchanged ideas on how to address these challenges, both by implementing the Summit’s decisions and by looking toward the future.

“I think this is a very important conference not only for NATO but also for ACT,” said Deputy Chief of Staff Strategic Plans and Policy, U.S. Air Force Major General Mark Barrett. “There were high-level participants and good subject matter expertise that have come together to grapple some very difficult issues. I think our ability to gather nearly 60 nations from both NATO and non-NATO countries together to have a frank, open and honest discussion on subjects of the conference has been very beneficial to not only NATO but the partner nations.”

Discussions focused on building capabilities through multinational and innovative approaches, partnerships and outreach, and assured access to the global commons.

“Certainly all three of the topics are important issues for NATO and important issues for our partners,” said Barrett. “The requirement to pool and share resources and use multinational approaches is key to NATO and our partners. There are also the wider issues of partners and how you develop closer relationships with your friends and allies and bring in a larger group of nations for common good, security and interest.”

The international community has recognised the domains of maritime, air, space and cyberspace as global commons – integral elements of today.

“This idea of assured access to the global commons is new to a lot of the participants here,” said Barrett. “It is an important discussion to have as the emerging and future security challenges start revealing themselves on how as a collection of nations we can look at some of these challenges and start to devise ways to get solutions.”

Barrett explains how the work of many people made this conference a success.

“Our Serbian hosts have been extraordinary in putting this venue together, to get us all into the conference and support the activities,” said Barrett. “The ACT Protocol staff and my staff in particular have been very good at bringing all this together. I can’t say enough about how well it has gone and I very much appreciate it.”

The discussions from SMPC 2011 will be captured in an analysis report, which will be available on the SMPC webpage.