Baltic Military Committee meeting was held on 24-25 April in Lithuania

The Commandant of the BALTDEFCOL, BGen Gundars Âbols participated in the Baltic Military Committee consisting of the Commanders of the Defence Forces of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian armed forces which gathered for a working meeting to discuss joint defence projects of the Baltic States on 24-25 April 2008 in Lithuania.

The Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces LtGen Ants Laaneots, the Commander of Latvian National Armed Forces MajGen Juris Maklakovs and the Chief of Defence of the Lithuanian Armed Forces LtGen Valdas Tutkus discussed the present state of joint defence projects, including the air surveillance system BALTNET, the joint mine countermeasures unit BALTRON and the military educational institution BALTDEFCOL. The Baltic Military Committee prepared recommendations on the policies and further developments of the projects for decision and approval to the Baltic Ministerial Committee, which serves as the highest political authority in all of the above named projects. BGen Gundars Âbols presented the Baltic Military Committee the BALTDEFCOL Long Term Development Plan 2010-2015, including the Annual Activity Plan 2009, the linked Budget estimate, distribution of student slots, and Long Term Manning Plan covering the Management and Directing Staffs positions to be manned. The Baltic Military Committee took note of BG Âbols\' report on the importance of multinational presence and bilateral cooperation in and the need to implement new educational tools, such as Advance Distance Learning (ADL) and Modulation & Simulation (M&S), in BALTDEFCOL. The Baltic Military Committee meets regularly� twice a year. The previous meeting was held in Rozmalas, Latvia.