Spain’s Crown Prince Felipe held talks in Madrid Friday with the chairman of the NATO Military Committee about Madrid’s contribution to the missions of the Atlantic Alliance and the organization’s main international projects and challenges.
During his first official visit to Spain, Danish Gen. Knud Bartels also had a working meeting with the head of the Spanish Defense General Staff, Adm. Fernando Garcia Sanchez.
Bartels is in Madrid to discuss the contribution of the Spanish armed forces to the NATO Response Force and the concept of Smart Defense, which encourages allied cooperation in the development, acquisition and maintenance of military capabilities in order to effectively deal with security problems.
Denmark’s top military officer became chairman of the NATO Military Committee in January 2012, succeeding Canada’s Gen. Raymond Renault, after being elected for a three-year term by the respective military chiefs at a September 2011 meeting in Seville, Spain.
The Military Committee is NATO’S highest ranking military authority and its president is the chief military adviser to the secretary general of the Atlantic Alliance.
