2015-10-04 17:44 update: 2018-09-27, 07:04
Joint training of counter-intelligence officers from NATO countries will begin soon in Poland, deputy Defence Minister Robert Kupiecki told PAP on Saturday.
The officers will also be able to work on a joint doctrine, added Kupiecki, the signatory on the Polish Defence Ministry's behalf of an agreement on setting up a NATO Counter-Intelligence Centre of Excellence (NATO CI COE) in Poland.
The COE will be based in Krakow but some facilities will be in Lest, Slovakia, where military training grounds are located.
The first head of the new COE will be a Pole, Kupiecki told PAP, with Poland and Slovakia as the framework countries of the agreement assuming the main burden of organisational work.
Establishing the centre means more than just adding another, already the 24th NATO centre of excellence, according to Kupiecki.
"It means adding new allied capabilities to those already in place, in conditions of threats from the east and the south. This is a very real contribution from Poland, Slovakia and the (other) countries forming the centre to producing a new quality", the deputy minister told PAP.
The COE will organise joint training for the armed forces of the NATO member countries, "involving identification of threats, counteracting them, a methodology of working with threats of a counter-intelligence nature", Kupiecki said, adding that the centre would also work on the member states' military counter-intelligence doctrine, meaning "a set of best practices, guidelines in both a national and an allied aspect".
"I expect that the first officers from NATO member countries will arrive at the centre before the end of the year", the deputy minister also told PAP. (PAP)
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